Dr. Shadrach Teryila Ukuma has been teaching Theatre and Cultural Studies at the Theatre Arts Department of Benue State University since April 2013. He holds a dual PhD in Cultural Sustainability from the SDG Graduate School “Performing Sustainability: Cultures and Development in West Africa” via a joint commission (Cotutelle de These) between the University of Hildesheim (Germany) and University of Maiduguri (Nigeria).
His thesis entitled “Cultural Performances: A Study on Managing Collective Trauma amongst Displaced Persons in Daudu Community of Benue State, Nigeria” was published by Peter Lang International Academic Publishers in 2021. Dr. Ukuma also co-edited the volume “Recentring Cultural Performance and Orange Economy in Postcolonial Africa: Policy, Soft Power and Sustainability” which was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2022.
In 2022, Dr. Ukuma was trained and certified at The Festival Academy of the European Festival Association as a Festival and Cultural Manager. Between 2022 and 2023, the Alumni Network of the DAAD Graduate School also trained him extensively in a series of three workshops held in Ghana, Germany and Uganda under the theme “Co-creating Avenues for Culture and Sustainable Development.”
Dr. Shadrach Teryila Ukuma won the Reinholdt Würth Foundation Global South Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cultural Management and taught International Cultural Management to Master’s students at the Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences, Campus Künzelsau, Germany, in the Winter Semester of 2021. He has also given invited lectures to postgraduate students in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Warwick, UK, and the Universities of Bielefeld and Hildesheim in Germany.
Shadrach also served as a Researcher in Residence for Pengo International Academy Lab of the Hildesheimer Wallungen Festival, Germany, from May to July 2023. In August 2024, Dr. Ukuma was selected by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation as one of twelve Fellows across the world for a Residency Programme in Berlin, Germany, to engage on the theme “Power and Knowledge: Confronting Imbalances in Our Knowledge Systems between Global North and the Global South” with a target to produce a policy paper for research funding and development cooperation, as well as other output formats.
His research interests include Cultural Performance and Aesthetics, Cultural Management, Transculturality, Cultural Sustainability, Theatre Tourism, and Creative Peacebuilding. In addition, Shadrach belongs to many academic societies and has participated in over 30 Conferences and Workshops at home and abroad, while also serving on many committees in Benue State University.
Since 2015, Dr. Ukuma has been serving as the pioneer Director of the Kyegh Sha Shwa Cultural Festival (www.kyeghshashwa.org), an annual multidisciplinary cultural celebration event, which he co-founded. His involvement in the development of the Creative Industries in Benue State is quite noticeable, particularly in the area of Filmmaking, Festival Management, Entertainment Design, Mentorship, and Cultural Promotion.
He is happily married to Mrs. Mnena Nelly Ukuma and the union is blessed with a son, Master Simon Tor-er Ukuma.