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Language, Faith, and Digital Culture: Welcoming Dr. Nkechi Ukaegbu at CERES

The linguist Dr. Nkechi Ukaegbu is currently a guest researcher at CERES and the CRC 1475. As part of the CRC’s subproject C04, she investigates metaphorical representations of biblical figures in digital communication within Nigerian Pentecostal contexts.

Dr. Nkechi Ukaegbu is a linguist whose work bridges theoretical and applied linguistics, with a focus on phonetics, phonology, and language documentation. She earned her PhD in Linguistics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 2024. Her dissertation examined the acoustic features of vowel harmony in Bìrọ̀m, a low-resource Nigerian language. She also holds BA and MA degrees in Linguistics from Nasarawa State University, Keffi.

Currently a lecturer and researcher at the University of Nigeria, Ukaegbu explores topics such as African heritage studies, indigenous health communication, and digital humanities. Her present research project investigates the metaphorical use of biblical figures in Nigerian Pentecostal online posters, highlighting how metaphors shape cultural and religious meaning in digital spaces. In this context, she collaborates with Prof. Dr. Tatjana Scheffler and Prof. Dr. Frederik Elwert in subproject C04 “Metaphor and Social Positioning in Religious Online Forums” of the CRC 1475 “Metaphors of Religion”.

Her research stay at our institute began on March 14, 2025, and will continue until September 15, 2025.
We are excited about the insights her work brings to our interdisciplinary research group and look forward to the results of her exciting research.