Wale Adebanwi
{{Short description|Nigerian academic}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = Wale Adewiwi
| birth_name = Adewale Adebanwi
| birth_date = 1969
| nationality = Nigerian
| occupation = University professor
| education = University of Lagos, University of Ibadan, University of Cambridge
| discipline = Social Anthropology, Political Science
| workplaces = University of Pennsylvania
| main_interests = Identity politics, race relations, elites and cultural politics, spatial politics and social change
}}
Wale Adebanwi (born 1969) is a Nigerian-born first Black Rhodes Professor at St Antony's College, Oxford 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.{{Cite web |title=Professor Wale Adebanwi |url=https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/people/wale-adebanwi/ |access-date=2022-08-06 |website=Oxford Martin School |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=PROF. WALE ADEBANWI: I Wish I Were Gifted But I've Got Good Luck |url=https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2019/11/17/prof-wale-adebanwi-i-wish-i-were-gifted-but-ive-got-good-luck/ |access-date=2022-08-06 |website=ThisDay Live}}{{Cite web |date=2017-01-18 |title=First Black African To Be Appointed Rhodes Professor {{!}} Wale Adebanwi |url=http://www.nigerianmonitor.com/first-black-african-to-be-appointed-rhodes-professorwale-adebanwi-biographywale-adebanwi-profile/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170427143610/http://www.nigerianmonitor.com/first-black-african-to-be-appointed-rhodes-professorwale-adebanwi-biographywale-adebanwi-profile/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=27 April 2017 |access-date=2022-08-06 |website=Nigerian Monitor |language=en-US}} He is currently a Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.{{Cite web |title=Wale Adebanwi {{!}} Africana Studies |url=https://africana.sas.upenn.edu/people/wale-adebanwi |access-date=2022-08-06 |website=africana.sas.upenn.edu}} 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 from the University of Lagos, and later earned his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Ibadan. He also has an MPhil. and a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge.{{cite web|last1=Naijamotherland|title=Wale Adebanwi: Meet The Nigerian Appointed As First Black African Rhodes Professor At Oxford University|url=http://dailynigerianews.naijamotherland.com/2017/01/18/wale-adebanwi-meet-the-nigerian-appointed-as-first-black-african-rhodes-professor-at-oxford-university/|publisher=Naija Motherland| accessdate=28 February 2017}}{{Cite web |title=Wale Adebanwi {{!}} Africana Studies |url=https://africana.sas.upenn.edu/people/wale-adebanwi |access-date=2023-06-05 |website=africana.sas.upenn.edu}}
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.{{cite web|last1=Bellanaija|title=President Buhari Hails Wale Adebanwi on his Appointment as Rhodes Professor at Oxford University|url=https://www.bellanaija.com/2017/01/president-buhari-hails-wale-adebanwi-on-his-appointment-as-rhodes-professor-at-oxford-university/|publisher=Bella naija.com|date=14 January 2017| accessdate=28 February 2017}} He was later appointed as an assistant professor in the African American and African Studies Department of the University of California, Davis, USA. He became a full professor at UC Davis in 2016.{{Cite web |title=Wale Adebanwi |url=https://aas.ucdavis.edu/faculty-and-staff/wale-adebanwi |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160926235406/https://aas.ucdavis.edu/faculty-and-staff/wale-adebanwi |archive-date=2016-09-26 |website=UC Davis}} Adebanwi was awarded the [https://www.gf.org/fellows/wale-adebanwi/ Guggenheim fellowship] in 2024.
He is the author of [https://iupress.org/9780253070364/how-to-become-a-big-man-in-africa/ How to Become a Nigeria Big Man in Africa: Subalternity, Elites, and Ethnic Politics in Contemporary Nigeria] (2024); [https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/politics-international-relations/african-government-politics-and-policy/yoruba-elites-and-ethnic-politics-nigeria-bafemi-awolowo-and-corporate-agency?format=PB Yoruba Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo and Corporate Agency] (2014); [https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781580465557/nation-as-grand-narrative/ Nation as Grand Narrative: The Nigerian Press and the Politics of Meaning] (2016); and [https://cap-press.com/books/isbn/9781611630237/Authority-Stealing Authority Stealing: Anti-Corruption War and Democratic Politics in Nigeria] (2012). He is the editor and co-editor of many books, including [https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781847013514/democracy-and-nigerias-fourth-republic/ Democracy and Nigeria's Fourth Republic: Governance, Political Economy, and Party Politics 1999–2023] (2023); [https://www.ohioswallow.com/9780821424902/everyday-state-and-democracy-in-africa/ 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.{{Cite web |title=African Studies Workshop Featuring Wale Adebanwi |url=https://africa.harvard.edu/event/african-studies-workshop-featuring-wale-adebanwi |access-date=2022-08-06 |website=africa.harvard.edu |language=en}}
Works
- 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) 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
- [https://www.universityherald.com/articles/59728/20170111/oxford-university-first-black-african-rhodes-professor-nigerian-adebanwi.htm Rhodes Professorship in Race Relations] at Oxford School of Area and Global Studies, University of Oxford, UK.{{cite web |title=Nigerian scholar named Rhodes Professor at Oxford University |url=https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/219998-nigerian-scholar-named-rhodes-professor-oxford-university.html |website=www.premiumtimesng.com |publisher=Premium Times |access-date=7 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220526053137/https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/219998-nigerian-scholar-named-rhodes-professor-oxford-university.html |archive-date=May 26, 2022 |language=en |date=January 10, 2017 |url-status=live}}
- [https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/two-penn-professors-named-2024-guggenheim-fellows Guggenheim Fellowship] (2024)
- MacArthur Foundation ‘Research and Writing Grant’ (2005-2006)
- Rockefeller Fellowship (Academic Writing Residency, Bellagio Center, Italy) 2013
References
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Category:University of Ibadan alumni
Category:University of Lagos alumni
Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge
Category:Fellows of St Antony's College, Oxford
Category:Academic staff of the University of Ibadan
Category:Christ's School, Ado Ekiti alumni
Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty
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