Dr. Agina A.
Programme Director
Añulika Agina is an Associate Professor of Media Studies at the Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, with a research focus on media effects, film and social change, cinema-going/streaming cultures, and, more recently, women filmmakers. She holds academic degrees from the University of Lagos, Pan-Atlantic University, and the University of Westminster.
She teaches media literacy and theories of media and communication, qualitative research, film and cultural analysis, and media, family and society. She served as Academic Director across three departments of the SMC from 2015 to 2019 and coordinated several research seminars, conferences, and workshops for staff and students between 2009 and 2019.
She is currently the Programme Director of the MSc Media and Communication and a member of the SMC Management Board.
Dr. Agina has completed research fellowships in South Africa, Germany, and British universities, and has collaborated with several international research teams. Funded by the European Research Council from 2019 to 2024, she worked on the Screen Worlds project at SOAS University of London, investigating Nigerian screen cultures and creative industries.
This led to the production of a documentary on film exhibition titled Behind My Nollywood Screen (2022) and a co-edited book Contemporary African Screen Worlds (2025) published by Duke University Press.
She is the Convener of the Women Filmmakers’ Research Network, and her research has been published in the Journal of African Media Studies, Black Camera, Critical African Studies, Journal of African Cultural Studies, and other reputable journals. She also serves on the editorial boards of high-impact journals.
Dr. Agina has facilitated young women’s leadership programmes for about a decade and mentored postgraduate students and early career researchers (ECRs) in Nigeria, across Africa, and globally.
She is passionate about media research and its tangible benefits beyond publications. When she is not working, she enjoys reading and watching medical, legal, and historical fiction. She also studies music informally.
Recent Publications
Agina, A. & Adah, A. (2025a). Up North: The re-narration of Northeast Nigeria. In J. Llamas-Rodrigues (Ed.), Media Travels: Towards an Atlas of Global Media, pp. 77–90. Amherst, MA: Amherst College Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.14494542
Agina, A. (2025b). Netflix the enabling-disruptor in Nigeria. In L. Dovey, A. Agina & M. W. Thomas (Eds.), pp. 53–73, Duke University Press.
Dovey, L., Agina, A., & Thomas, M. W. (2025b). Introduction: Exploring Screen Worlds. In L. Dovey, A. Agina & M. W. Thomas (Eds.), Contemporary African Screen Worlds, pp. 20–35. Duke University Press.
Agina, A. (January 2023a). Remembering the past: A conversation with Afolabi Adesanya as film exhibitor. Black Camera, 14(2).
Agina, A. & Cheeka, D. (2023b). Accessing the Nigerian Film Archive: Tensions and Questions. In S. Schulte Strathaus & V. Hediger (Eds.), Accidental Archivism: Shaping Cinema’s Futures with Remnants of the Past. Frankfurt: Meson Press.
Agina, A. (2022a). Nigerian film audiences on the internet: Influences, preferences and contentions. In G. Musila (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of African Popular Culture, pp. 237–259. Oxfordshire: Routledge.
Agina, A. (2021b). Netflix and the Transnationalization of Nollywood. Post-45 New Filmic Geographies Journal, April 13. https://post45.org/2021/04/netflix-and-the-transnationalization-of-nollywood/
Agina, A. (2019a). Cinema-going in Lagos: Three locations, one film, one weekend. Journal of African Cultural Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2019.1615871