Wale Adebanwi (born 1969) is a

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

n-born first

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

Rhodes Professor at

St Antony's College, Oxford St Antony's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in international relations, economics, politic ...

where he was, until June 2021, a Professor of Race Relations, and the Director of the African Studies Centre, School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies, and a Governing Board Fellow. He is currently a Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. Adebanwi's research focuses on a range of topics in the areas of social change, nationalism and ethnicity, race relations, identity politics, elites and cultural politics, democratic process, newspaper press and spatial politics in Africa.

Education background

Wale Adebanwi graduated with a first degree in

Mass Communication Mass communication is the process of imparting and exchanging information through mass media to large population segments. It utilizes various forms of media as technology has made the dissemination of information more efficient. Primary examples o ...

from the

University of Lagos The University of Lagos (UNILAG) is a Public university, public research university located in Lagos, Nigeria, which was founded in 1962. UNILAG is one of the education in Nigeria#First generation universities, first generation universities in ...

, and later earned his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in

Political Science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

from the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public university located in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Initially founded as the University College Ibadan in 1948, it maintained its affiliation with the University of London. In 1962, it became an independe ...

. He also has an MPhil. and a Ph.D. in

Social Anthropology Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...

from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

Career

Adebanwi worked as a freelance reporter, writer, journalist, and editor for many newspapers and magazines before he joined the University of Ibadan's Department of Political Science as a lecturer and researcher. He was later appointed as an assistant professor in the African American and African Studies Department of the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

, USA. He became a full professor at UC Davis in 2016. Adebanwi was awarded the Guggenheim fellowship in 2024. He is the author of How to Become a Nigeria Big Man in Africa: Subalternity, Elites, and Ethnic Politics in Contemporary Nigeria (2024); Yoruba Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo and Corporate Agency (2014); Nation as Grand Narrative: The Nigerian Press and the Politics of Meaning (2016); and Authority Stealing: Anti-Corruption War and Democratic Politics in Nigeria (2012). He is the editor and co-editor of many books, including Democracy and Nigeria's Fourth Republic: Governance, Political Economy, and Party Politics 1999–2023 (2023); Everyday State and Democracy in Africa: Ethnographic Encounters (2022); Elites and the Politics of Accountability in Africa (2021); The Political Economy of Everyday Life in Africa: Beyond the Margins (2017); Writers and Social Thought in Africa (2016); and Democracy and Prebendalism in Nigeria: Critical Interpretations (2013). Adebanwi was a co-editor of '' Africa: Journal of the International African Institute'' and the '' Journal of Contemporary African Studies''.

Works

His published works include: * ''Nation as Grand Narrative: The Nigerian Press and the Politics of Meaning'' (University of Rochester Press, 2016) * ''Yoruba Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo and Corporate Agency'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014) * ''Authority Stealing: Anti-corruption War and Democratic Politics in Post-Military Nigeria'' (Carolina Academic Press, 2012) In addition, he is the editor and co-editor of other books, including. * ''The Political Economy of Everyday Life in Africa: Beyond the Margins'' (James Currey Publishers, 2017) * ''Writers and Social Thought in Africa'' (Routledge, 2016) * (co-edited with

Ebenezer Obadare Ebenezer Babatunde Obadare is a Nigerian-American academic. He is the Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington DC. Until 2021, he was a professor of Sociology at the University of Kansas, ...

) ''Governance and the Crisis of Rule in Contemporary Africa'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) * (co-edited with Ebenezer Obadare) ''Democracy and Prebendalism in Nigeria: Critical Interpretations'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). * (co-edited with Ebenezer Obadare) ''Nigeria at Fifty: The Nation in Narration'' (Routledge, 2012) * (co-edited with Ebenezer Obadare) ''Encountering the Nigerian State'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

Awards

* Rhodes Professorship in Race Relations at Oxford School of Area and Global Studies, University of Oxford, UK.
Guggenheim Fellowship
(2024) * MacArthur Foundation ‘Research and Writing Grant’ (2005-2006) * Rockefeller Fellowship (Academic Writing Residency, Bellagio Center, Italy) 2013

References

Living people 1969 births University of Ibadan alumni University of Lagos alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge Fellows of St Antony's College, Oxford Yoruba academics Academic staff of the University of Ibadan Christ's School, Ado Ekiti alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty {{Nigeria-academic-bio-stub