Biography
Niamh Ahern is a writer, editor, and researcher from Cape Town, South Africa. She holds a BA in Music, Psychology, and Afrikaans and a BA(Hons) in Afrikaans from the University of Cape Town. She is currently reading for an MSt in World Literatures in English.
In her Honours thesis, she explored hauntology, place, and enfreakment in a comparative study of Afrikaans and Appalachian gothic novels. She was awarded a Merit Bursary from the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns and the Prof JJ Smith Scholarship from UCT's Afrikaans and Netherlandic Studies Section in support of her Honours degree.
At UCT, she served in various student leadership roles, most recently as Editor-in-Chief of Varsity Newspaper, Chairperson of the Student Psychiatry Society, and Social Sciences Director of the African Research Society. During her time as Deputy Editor-in-Chief, the Varsity Newspaper team received a Student Leadership Award. She was a member of the UCT Symphony Orchestra during her undergraduate studies and previously worked as an Editorial Assistant at New Contrast literary journal.
Some of her interests include science and technology studies, institutions, the GLAM sector, “minor” languages, and higher education.