Dr. Larissa Kojoué

Short Bio

Larissa Kojoué is a Cameroonian scholar, Doctor of Political Science, graduated from the University of Yaoundé 2-Soa/Cameroon in 2006, and from the Institute of Political Studies of Bordeaux/France in 2013.  Researcher, lecturer, feminist and social justice activist, Larissa Kojoué is passionate about women human rights and African literature. Her experience includes the realization of several scientific and community research projects, the publication of a dozen articles on global health issues, Citizenship and State-Society relations. It also includes teaching political sociology at the University of Lyon Lumière and the University of Buea. In parallel to her academic work, she is also engaged in activist work: movement building, resource mobilization and coordination of community projects specifically targeting women and sexual minorities in West and Central Africa. Current research project: Queering the Internet: digital practices and Sexual politics in contemporary West and Central Africa.

Selected Publications

• « Distorsions et dilemmes du système performatif de l’aide internationale au développement », Avec Anne Le Naëlou et Elisabeth Hoffman, Revue internationale des études du développement, 241-1, 7-37, 2020
• « La continuité autoritariste. Saisir les (non)transformations de l’Etat à partir des politiques de lutte contre le VIH/sida au Cameroun », Revue Internationale de politique de Développement, 12 (1), 2020
• « Un exclu peut-il être citoyen ? Mobilisations homosexuelles autour du VIH/sida et bio citoyenneté au Cameroun », Politique Africaine, 2019/1 (153).
• Larissa Kojoué (dir.), Tu seras docteur.e. mon enfant. Expériences et postures de recherche des thésards africains, Editions l’Harmattan, Paris, 2017
• “LGBT Rights in a Republic of Therapy. HIV/AIDS policies and the redefinition of citizenship in Cameroon”, Critical African Studies, 9:1, 91-105, 2017
  

Project Description

In contexts marked by rejection, exclusion and severe condemnation of any reference to same sex sexualities or trans identities, the internet and digital media represent an horizon of absolute freedom.  Little documented outside the fight against HIV/AIDS policies, how do queer mobilizations, but specifically the strategies of visibility of queer identities online, in contexts that prohibit their expression, inform us about the emergence or failure of a social movement that brings emancipation to women, sexual minorities, the discriminated and the excluded? Our reflection examines, on the one hand, the way in which sexual and gender minorities, which we gather under the generic term queer, occupy the public space online through social media, and also offline, and on the other hand, the political significance of such practices. These public exposures of contested genders and identities are often followed by serious security and health threats. They also reflect, however, profound political and social changes and inform the production of knowledge and political practices around gender and sexuality in Contemporary Cameroon.