Episode 44: 10 Questions with Dr. Ida Hadjivayanis

10 Questions with Feminist AcademicsIn this series we engage 10 feminist academics around 10 questions within and across their disciplines that are important for all to consider at this historical juncture. BioIda Hadjivayanis is an academic at SOAS University of London where she lectures on Swahili studies and Translation. She has translated Dhulma (2025) and Peponi (2022), the Swahili translations of Theft (2025) and Paradise (1994) by the Nobel laureate, Abdulrazak Gurnah. Ida’s publications explore Swahili literary translations, norms of translating prose in Swahili and translocality of Swahili speakers in diaspora. She has collaborated with Salha Hamdani on a memoir : Salama binti Rubeya : Memories from the Swahili Coast / Salama binti Rubeya: Simulizi kutoka Mwambao wa Bahari ya Hindi which launches on August 23, 2025 in Zanzibar. The book offers a lived perspective of those who are often excluded from historical narratives, showcasing how the everyday person was impacted by historical forces. Ida has also translated Alisi ndani ya nchi ya Ajabu (2015) and Poems for the Penniless (2019), a collaboration with the Tanzanian academic, Issa Shivji. Her extensive public speaking engagements explore various themes including the reality of multi-lingualism in Africa, decolonisation in translations, the unequal encounters on the Indian Ocean and the place of Swahili as a global lingua-franca. Ida Hadjivayanis is the co-founder of the annual SOAS Baraza Swahili Conference.CreditsProduced by: The Feminist Centre for Racial JusticeHost: Vasiliki VitaSound design, editing, production: Ellan A. Lincoln HydeMusic: Grateful by audiolibraryinfinite from Pixabay