Marjorie Rugunda is a PhD student in the department of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia. She holds a BA with Honours degree from Rhodes University, South Africa and a Masters degree from the University of Calgary. Before beginning her doctoral studies she worked as a middle and high school English teacher. Her current research studies how institutions within Africa represent entrenched colonial legacies that shape contemporary social and political relations in (post)colonial contexts.

My research explores how race, class, and culture intersect within educational institutions in Africa, highlighting how these spaces reflect and perpetuate unequal social, political, and economic relations between the Global North and the Global South. By examining the experiences of both local and foreign educators, I seek to understand how postcolonial dynamics are embedded within institutional practices. My work challenges the assumption that postcoloniality inherently leads to equitable global relations, advocating for policies that address the enduring legacies of colonialism in educational contexts

Rugunda, Marjorie. 2025. “From Classroom to Citizenship: Higher Education’s Role in Migration Policy.” CMS Migration Insights Series. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Centre for Migration Studies.

Rugunda, Marjorie. “As aid ends, empire endures.” Africa is a Country, 29 April 2025, pp. 1-2. https://www.africasacountry.com/2025/04/as-aid-ends-empire-endures

Rugunda, Marjorie. “The Shade.” Brittle Paper, 06 February 2023, pp.1-3. https://brittlepaper.com/2023/02/the-shade-marjorie-namara-rugunda-fiction/

Rugunda, Marjorie. “Performance Art.” Brittle Paper, 10 March 2023, pp.1-5. https://brittlepaper.com/2023/03/performance-art-marjorie-namara-rugunda-fiction/

Rugunda, Marjorie. “The Disappearing Island.” A Journal of Canadian Literary and Cultural Studies, vol 9, no 1, 2020, pp.51-53.

Rugunda, Marjorie. “The power of Networking. ” African Writers Trust, 17th October, 2019, pp.1. Rugunda, Marjorie. “The perks of milking patriarchy.” Conversations with Her, Vol 1, no 1, 2017, pp 5-9

Special UBC Graduate Scholarship-GRSJ Graduate Award , 2024

Faculty of Arts Graduate Award, 2024

New Voices Scholarship by Kweli Journal, 2023

March Writer of the Month by Brittle Paper, 2023

A.T.J Cairns Memorial Scholarship, 2020

MacKenzie – Hicks Graduate Scholarship, 2019

Andrew W. Mellon Scholarship for Urban Connections in African Popular Imaginaries, 2018

Rugunda, Marjorie. “Colonial Legacies in International Schools: Investigating Race, Labor, and Inequality in Ugandan International Schools.” Graduate Research Colloquium, Department of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, 2nd April 2025, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Conference Presentation.

Rugunda, Marjorie. “Shedding Beliefs: Challenging reductive, stereotyped readings of African literature.” McGill Queen’s Seventeenth Annual Graduate Conference, 14th March 2020, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Conference Presentation.

Rugunda, Marjorie. “Shedding Beliefs: Challenging reductive, stereotyped readings of African literature.” Free exchange interdisciplinary graduate program, 28th February 2020, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Conference Presentation.

Rugunda, Marjorie. “An exploration of manhood, sexuality and Culture in Thando Mgqolozana’s A Man who is not a Man and John Trengrove’s Inxeba.”African Feminisms conference, 28th September, 2018, Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa, Conference Presentation.