Judith Sinanga-Ohlmann was born and raised in Rwanda. In 1987, she became Laureate of the International French radio for the best short story written in French. This achievement earned her a scholarship at the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis in France, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Modern Languages (Licence ès Lettres) and a Master of Arts in Semiotics and Literary Sciences.
Following her studies in France, she undertook doctoral research at Queen’s University, leading to a PhD in Francophone Literature. Dr. Sinanga-Ohlmann’s academic progress has included teaching appointments at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, and Huron College at the University of Western Ontario.
In 2001, she was hired by the University of Windsor where she is currently an Associate professor. Dr. Sinanga-Ohlmann also holds an Adjunct Faculty position in the Department of French at Dalhousie University, contributing to the Faculty of Graduate Studies from November 1, 2024, to June 30, 2029.
Dr. Sinanga-Ohlmann’s courses include French grammar, 17th and 20th-century French literature, Francophone literatures from sub-Saharan Africa and the French Caribbean, and Francophone feminist literature. Her research mostly addresses themes of exile, diaspora, racism, the condition of African women, African politics and conflicts in the Great Lakes’ region of Africa. She has also published several articles on the Haitian francophone writer Gérard Étienne whose novels focus on the experiences and struggles of the Haitian people within Haiti and in the diaspora, as well as on diasporic experiences of Black people worldwide.
Dr. Sinanga-Ohlmann holds a partnership SSHRC grant for a research project titled “Faces of Racism: Everyday Racialized Encounters in Windsor Essex” (March 2023 – March 2026)
Her recent research publications include:
1. « La pensée de Gérard Étienne sur les peuples noirs » in Analyses - Revue de littératures franco-canadiennes et québécoise, Vol. 18, No 1, 41-56, May 2024.
2. « Incidence de l’enseignement d’un cours de littérature francophone de l’Afrique sub-saharienne et des Antilles dans une classe multiraciale » in Études interdisciplinaires en Sciences Humaines, No 10, (Tbilissi, Georgia), 495-512, janvier 2023.
3. “Henri Lopes, the prime minister of Congo who became a famous novelist: behind the power of his writing” in Conversation Canada, November 16, 2023.
4. « La littérature francophone ou l'art de s'approprier la langue de l'autre », in Repenser le fait francophone : Subjectivité constitutives et reconfiguration épistémologique. Recherches francophones, Vol 1, No 1, (Revue de l’Association Internationale d’Études littéraires et cultures de l’espace francophone – AIELCEF), 148-166), 2022.
5. Exil et errance dans la littérature francophone : miroir du quotidien ? Editions Amalthée (Nantes, France), 208 pages, 2020.