of Victoria
BA (Adekunle Ajasin), GradDip (United Nations), PhD (McMaster)
African History, Environmental History, History of Health and Medicine, Climate Change
Summer 2024: No office hours
I was born and raised in Nigeria, where I earned a first-class degree in History and International Studies. In 2022, I received my Ph.D. in African History from McMaster University and joined UVic History Department that same year. During my time at Mac, I taught and TA'ed courses in African history, Peace and conflict studies, Rise of empires, and Historical roots of contemporary issues. I am now working on my first book project, which analyzes how Africans negotiated colonial public health programs targeted at transforming them into “environmentally responsible subjects.” It makes original contributions to studies on colonial developmentalism, showing how subaltern politics and resistance shaped public health development in Africa. For my next project, I intend to build on my current research by shifting slightly to questions of sanitary technologies, health infrastructures, and power. Previously, I was a Water Without Borders scholar at the United Nations University - Institute for Water, Environment, and Health (UNU-INWEH), where I studied International Policy Development. Currently, I am an active member of Participedia, a global scholarly network on democratic innovation, and a pioneering member of the Nigerian Health Historians Network.