Overview
My name is Abímbọ́lá. And I hail from Ọ̀rẹ̀ in Oǹdó State, Nigeria. I have my Bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Adékúnlé Ajáṣin University. Followed by my Master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Lagos.
Research Focus
Over the course of my training at both of those institutions, and continuing now with my doctoral training in Africana Studies at Cornell University, I have always been concerned with two primary questions: (i) what are the factors that condition life on the African continent and; (ii) what, if anything, can be done to make life better for all who inhabit that continent? While my attempts to address these questions have taken me in so many different directions and yielded more insights than I am able to count, I am today striving to understand these questions through the fields of intellectual history and political philosophy. Since both of these fields are quite massive, I try to narrow my focus by studying late transitions to modernity in post-independence West Africa. The key phrase for me here is transition, for it evokes a certain historical outlook that enables one to see Africa in synchrony with other regions of the world. Coming from this vantage point, my aim is to stake Africa’s claim to global intellectual currents like the Enlightenment and its sociological concomitant; modernization theory. Over the course of my time here at Cornell, I hope to deepen my insight into these and other questions that never cease to bother me. Like: why in the world do spoons always disappear? And what insight does this reveal about the messiness of human nature?