- By Halimah Olamide
Two Nigerian professors Tayo Adesina and Abubakar Sule have been named as among the 7 latest British Academy of Global Professorship.
Adesina, of the University of Ibadan in Nigeria is currently at the University of Manchester and his project is “The Town and Gown Interface: Ibadan and the Decolonisation of Social Knowledge in the 20th Century.”
Abubakar Sule Sani who is currently at the University of East Anglia will be working with a project “Looking Forward, Looking Back: Past and Present West African Communities Revealed through Museum Collections.”
Others named in the latest academy of professors are Professor Tetyana Ansupova of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law with the project The Dynamics of the Judiciary in Ukraine in the Context of the Rule of Law and the EU Accession Aspirations; Professor Paul Behrens of the University of Oxford with the project Rapif Food System Transformations in a Rapidly Changing World; Professor Sanddrines Berges of the University of New York (Finding Diversity in Enlightenment’s Philosophy’s Attitude to Abolitionism.
Others named in the awards are Prof Karine Chemla of the University of Edinburgh with the project Rethinking the History fo Mathematical Symbolism; Professor Saloumeh Gholami of the University of Cambridge who is working on Persisting Through Change: A Study of Oral Literature and Cultural Interaction in the Zoroastrian Community; Professor Ayelet Landau of the University College, London with the task : Do Rhythms Coordinate Sensation and Action?
Adesina’s project will be on how the University College Ibadan (UCI) “became the epicentre of a historiographical revolution that directly shaped the evolution and growth of the Nigerian nation-state, a movement that became an early instance of the decolonisation of knowledge” according to the explanation provided on the website of the British Academy
The explanation went further, “How did the academic, social, intellectual, and political beacon at UCI address the concerns and realities of ordinary people? To what extent was the work of academic historians and social scientists at UCI shaped by indigenous, vernacular epistemologies? The city of Ibadan had its own, rich and distinctive, cultural and intellectual identity. This project studies for the first time the interplay of nationalist historiography, academic social science, and vernacular knowledge as mutually constitutive social epistemologies. The project combines a close study of key works in history and related disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, ethnomusicology, language and literature with extensive interviews and fieldwork in the city of Ibadan, Southwest Nigeria.”
In the case of Sani, his project aims to “bring new understandings of African history, and of UK/Nigerian research histories, through academic outputs, online resources, exhibitions and outreach in the UK and Nigeria.”
Sani was quoted in the explanation thus: “Building on my experience as a field archaeologist, educator and collections researcher, and deploying extensive networks, the project will have a transformative impact on my research and that of the University of East Anglia, while helping remedy current post-colonial issues concerning the role and value of museum collections.”
According to the British Academy, the Global Professorships scheme aims to foster collaboration between leading international researchers and UK-based institutions on new and cutting-edge research projects.
“The latest cohort of Global Professors will undertake research on a range of diverse issues, including the development of novel food system models to benefit society and the exploration of West African communities’ history through museum collections,” the Academy stated