Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies

Chikezirim (Chike) Nwoke is an anthropologist and political economist whose research investigates how young people in West Africa—apprentices, traders, tech workers, day jobbers, even scammers—negotiate economic and technological transformations. His research shows how youths work with and against long-standing traditions, state governance, and transnational financial regimes through improvisation and the imagination of new sociopolitical and economic orders. He earned his PhD from Carleton University, Canada in 2025, receiving the Governor General’s Gold Medal, awarded since 1873 to the student standing at the head of the graduating class. He holds a Master’s degree in Anthropology from Memorial University of Newfoundland, a Master’s degree in International Media from Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences in Germany, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Chike has worked in the humanitarian scene in East and West Africa particularly on media projects around hate speech, mis and disinformation, and irregular migration. He has contributed to creating educational and community engagement resources for initiatives like “Defy Hate Now” used in post conflict settings / refugee/IDP camps in Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon, Nigeria and South Sudan. He has also published works on humanitarian contexts in Africa touching on health, nutrition, and gender.