29-year-old lady bags Bamenda varsity’s first ever Ph.D. in English

The first-ever Ph.D. thesis in the department of English, University of Bamenda has been defended.

Emerencia Bey Sih successfully defended her thesis before a constituted jury on October 22 and has been recommended to the Senate for the award of a doctor of philosophy degree.

Doctor Emmerencia Beh Sih who is now the first student to defend a Ph.D. in the English department since its creation took over three hours, to present and defend her thesis titled, “Postmodern Dramatic Constructions And Spatial Negotiation in the selected plays of Sarah Kane and Suzan-Lori Parks, American and British writers”.

In front of a jury comprising Professor John Nkengasong, chairperson, Professor Kelvin Ngong Toh, Rapporteur, Professor Rosalyn M Jua, Examiner I, professor Teke Charles Ngiewih, Examiner II and Prof Mbuh Tennu Mbuh, Examiner III, and many other family members and friends.

In her thesis presentation, the candidate dwelled on the issues of the postmodern era that are still troubling the world today, not only in the United States and Britain as mentioned in the plays but also in Africa and Cameroon in particular.

According to the candidate, her main reason for choosing the topic is for it to serve as an eye-opener, thereby creating awareness concerning modernism, bringing it into the context of Cameroon and many other issues happening in the Anglophone regions.

“The study is like an eye-opener for us to see these hidden atrocities in the society and to instill hope in us that despite the things that are happening, we need to continue to live and expose the inequalities that we have in our society, so as to have a change in the future,” Emmerencia Beh Sih said

On his part, Professor John Nkengasong, chairperson of the jury said the candidate selected a very impactful topic, because she did not only center around the play and what is happening in the United States and Britain, but brought it to the context of Cameroon.

“The candidate has worked on a very complex concept of postmodernism, which explains the ways of life in the United States and Britain drawn from two authors who have written about the waywardness of existence in the present century,” Prof John Nkengasong said.

Admitted in 2017 to work on the topic Postmodern Dramatic Constructions And Spatial Negotiation, Emmerencia Beh Sih has taken four years to defend her Ph.D., where she tried to look at how the United States and Britain influence thoughts in the world, citing examples like Lesbianism, which is something that seems to have originated there but is now spreading to almost the whole world, thereby creating awareness for change.