Saints Spotlight: Professor Nicki Hitchcott
Professor Nicki Hitchcott is Head of the School of Modern Languages and specialises in the postcolonial literatures and cultures of francophone Africa. In this month’s Saints Spotlight, she discusses her current research project that looks to fill the gaps in Belgian imperial history through the study of colonial archives.
How did your St Andrews story start?
After just over 20 years at the University of Nottingham, where I’d risen through the ranks from Lecturer to Professor, I decided it was time for a change. In 2016, I applied for a position as Professor of French at the University of St Andrews. After my interview, the taxi driver who dropped me at Leuchars train station told me that St Andrews was my future. He was right.
What are your current priorities at the University?
I’m currently Head of the School of Modern Languages. This is a large and complex School where we teach eight languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Persian, Spanish and Russian) and their associated literatures and cultures. We also have a cross-School Comparative Literature Programme. As line manager for a large number of academic staff, my day-to-day priorities tend to focus on leadership, strategy and people management, but I still try to make time for my research.
What is the focus of your research at St Andrews?
I am a specialist in the postcolonial literatures and cultures of francophone Africa, so my focus is on the countries that were once part of the former French and Belgian empires. I have published on women writers, migrant fiction, and ecotexts. For many years now, I’ve been working on the African Great Lakes (Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC), most recently on the stories of the colonial métis, the children born of white settlers and Black indigenous women in the former Belgian colonial space.
My current project, Stolen Children, Lost Mothers, Absent Fathers: the Métis and their Families under the Belgian Empire, is funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh and is a collaboration with Dr Alice Urusaro Karekezi (University of Rwanda) and Dr John McInally (University of St Andrews). Our project traces the stories of the métis children who were deported from their birth countries to Belgium at the point of independence, ostensibly for their own safety. Most of the children never saw their mothers again. Through the study of colonial archives, cultural responses and eyewitness testimonies, our project is looking to fill the gaps in Belgian imperial history, focusing particularly on the mothers whose children were taken from them.
Tell us about your proudest achievement.
In the summer of 2024, I presented Professor Véronique Tadjo with an honorary degree. A distinguished writer, artist and academic from the francophone African nation of Côte d’Ivoire, Véronique had agreed to be interviewed by me in Abidjan back in 1992 when I was a PhD student working on her fiction. It was wonderful to be celebrating Véronique’s work here at St Andrews.
Where is your favourite spot in St Andrews?
I grew up in Devon, so I love the sea. When I came for my interview, a colleague told me that walking on the West Sands would bring me luck. Like the taxi driver, she was right.