Ivoline Budji Kefen

As a practicing sociocultural and linguistic anthropologist, Dr. Budji currently researches how armed conflict (especially the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon) intersects with new communication technologies and migration (displacement, settlement, and transnationalism). Also, she is passionate about using art, media, and writing as tools of empowerment, voice, and education. She further believes that knowledge should contribute to making the world a better place even in small, every day, often-unnoticed ways.

• PhD in Anthropology minoring in Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame (USA, 2024).
• Masters in Anthropology minoring in Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame (USA, 2021).
• Masters in Cross-Cultural Communication and Media (distinction), Newcastle University (UK, 2018).
• Masters in Anthropology (summa cum laude), Catholic University of Cameroon, Bamenda (Cameroon, 2015).

As Assistant Professor of Anthropology at DePauw, Dr. Budji teaches courses in (socio)cultural, linguistic, and applied anthropology, including Human Cultures; Public Engagement and Applied Work in Anthropology; Language, Culture, and Society; and Ethnographic Methods. She will also offer an extended course in January 2027 titled Decoding Media in a Hyperconnected World.

Some examples of publications mirroring her research interests include

• “Memory, Media, and the Making of Time: Women’s Groups and Social Movements in Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis” (PJSA Publications book chapter, forthcoming)
• “Crossing Over: An International Student’s Experiences and Musings in Recent Times” (Anthropology and Humanism peer-reviewed article, 2022)
• “Utilizing Sounds of Mourning as Protest and Activism: The 2019 Northwestern Women’s Lamentation March within the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon” (Resonance peer-reviewed article, 2020).

She also practices creative forms of knowledge dissemination (poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, audiovisual products, and drama). Examples include her poem “The Path”, published as part of the Indigenizing What it means to be Human in the Sapiens Anthropology Magazine (https://www.sapiens.org/culture/the-path/) and her short ethnographic film Through Her Eyes: Cameroonian Women Navigating Life in the USA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESIJ-7Bl0Uc).

Dr. Budji collaborates with other scholars, practitioners, and grassroots/ community-based organizations to address issues linked to the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon. A case in point is KPAAM-CAM’s COREWO (Convergence Research Workshop) project (2025). This project comprises training scholars from diverse disciplines and universities in Cameroon on collaborative research among internally displaced persons, and on providing actionable solutions to challenges these displaced persons and the destination populations face. Another example is La Liberté Arts Group’s Theatre of the Oppressed project (2021) focusing the use of drama to actively decry the Anglophone Crisis and work for long-term peace and social justice.

She further applies her anthropological training in her work as co-founder and CEO of Wings (https://wings4all.org), an NGO focusing holistic education, responsible media/ communication use, and community engagement among children and adolescents in Cameroon.

Her research has been supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, Kellogg Institute for International Studies (Notre Dame), and Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts (Notre Dame). She has also been a Chevening Scholar (2017-2018) and Mandela Washington Fellow (2017).