Researcher, Philosophy and Genre Project
Chantal Gishoma is a researcher on the ERC-funded project Philosophy and Genre: Creating a Textual Basis for African Philosophy. She specialises in Rwandan language and literature, with particular expertise in the poetic and philosophical works of Alexis Kagame. Her research explores how Rwandan poetic genres contribute to philosophical discourse, focusing especially on Kagame’s largely unpublished poem Umulilimbyi wa Nyili-Ibiremwa (The Singer of the Master-of-Creation), which develops a distinct conception of the universe.

Chantal completed her doctoral studies at the Sorbonne Nouvelle–INALCO, where her thesis and subsequent publications examined Kagame’s poetry, translation in literature, and radio theatre. Between 2003 and 2010, she taught language and literature at the National University of Rwanda, and since 2017 has lectured in the Africa Department at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilisations (INALCO) in Paris.

She became an associate researcher at LLACAN (UMR 8135–CNRS) in 2019 and joined PLIDAM, INALCO’s research team, in 2021. Her work within the Philosophy and Genre project deepens the understanding of how poetic expression functions as a medium for African philosophical thought.