24 Jun Mona Mwakalinga

Mona Mwakalinga is a lecture in the Department of Creative Arts, formerly known as the Department of Fine and Performing Arts. She received her doctorate in Film and Media studies from the University Of Kansas (USA) where she wrote her dissertation on the Political Economy of the Film Industry in Tanzania. She also received a M.A degree in Film and Theatre and a B.A in  Theatre and Literature from the University of Dar es salaam.

Her area of  specialization is African and Transnational film studies, directing and writing, with  research interest that include Globalization and Filmmaking in Africa/ developing  world, the Construction of Race, Gender, Class and Identity in Film and the Political Economy of the Film Industry.

Mwakalinga has researched on numerous  topics such as the Image of Women in Feature Films, Women in Theatre in Tanzanian, the Film industry in Tanzania. She has written numerous screenplays  and radio plays for many NGOs such as UNICEF and IMPACT and presented  conference paper essays on Exporting Cinema to Africa during the Silent Era, National Identity and Film in Tanzania, Socialism and Film in Tanzania: a Tool for  Propagation.

She has received numerous awards: SAREC-SIDA sponsorship,  Fulbright Fellowship and Outstanding Conference paper for a Film symposium.  Currently, she is working on turning her PhD dissertation into a book and is the Deputy Principal of the College of Humanities,  University of Dar es Salaam, Chairperson of Parapanda Theatre Trust and Board  member of the Tanzanian Film Federation.