Peyi Soyinka-Airewele is Associate Professor of African and International Politics with interests in the fields of socio-political memory, the politics of disaster, critical development theory, human rights and the politics of African Cinema. Her publications include, most recently, Socio-Political Scaffolding and the Construction of Change, co-edited with Kelechi Kalu (Africa World Press, 2008), Reframing Contemporary Africa, co-edited with Kiki Edozie (CQ Press 2009) and Invoking the Past, Conjuring the Nation (forthcoming, 2009). Her work on democratic development, collective memory and cathartic violence has been published in several scholarly journals including the Journal of African and Asian Studies, the Journal of Third World Studies and West Africa Review. Dr Soyinka-Airewele received her PhD in International Studies from the University of Birmingham, U.K and prior to joining Ithaca College, she taught at Colgate University, New York. She has also served as the International Director of ACT Africa and is currently President of the Association of Third World Studies. Her current research engages the socio-political discourses of popular African cinema and their fluid interpretations of transforming identities and issues in global and local spaces.
I am constantly invigorated by the fact that I live in an exciting community of learners who help to recreate the world through vibrant questions and an engaged approach to rethinking the social, political and economic constructs that define our lives. Please follow the various links on this site to learn more about my work and goals and the various projects that have enabled me to work closely with students in addressing critical global issues.
♦I presently serve as the President of the ATWS, having served as Vice-President in 2008-2009. The Association of Third World Studies, (ATWS) is now the largest professional organization in the world devoted to the study of Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, with a global membership and chapters in South Asia and Africa. Members include academics, practitioners, employees of government agencies, and diplomats who reside in 45 states plus the District of Columbia in the U.S., and in 21 other countries around the globe (especially Kenya, Nigeria, and India). To learn more about the ATWS and its activities and conferences, please follow the following links:
♦The ICASA AIDS International film festival – I was delighted to be invited to organize with the assistance of several IC students a Film Festival supporting the 2005 International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA). Through many months of hard work, the team was able to organize a major program that helped to sensitize, educate, and strengthen the struggle against AIDS by making available cinematic resources that challenge current misconceptions about the disease and create a supportive voice for those who have suffered from this disease.
♦The Africa Through Film Course has also made possible a web-based International collaborative classroom which is a critical innovation in international academic partnership. Through this curricular initiative, students here at Ithaca College, New York and at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria were able to participate in a rigorous and unforgettable shared learning space on International and African Politics.