Professor Abosede Omowumi Babatunde

Abosede Omowumi Babatunde is a Professor at the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin, Nigeria. Professor Babatunde is an AfOx Visiting Fellow at the Africa Studies Centre, University of Oxford, as part of the Africa Oxford Visiting Fellowship Programme.

Professor Babatunde is a highly accomplished academic and researcher. She has received several prestigious fellowships throughout her career, including the African Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2010, the American Council of Learned Societies and the Research Fellowship in Peace Studies in 2013 at the Consortium for Peace Studies, Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In addition, she was a Fellow of the Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society, Ludwig-Maximillian University, Munich, Germany in 2017/18, and a Fellow of the Brown International Advanced Research Institute (BIARI), Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States in 2017. She was also a Guest Researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, Sweden in 2019. Professor Babatunde's research has been supported by research grants from various organizations, including the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), African Peacebuilding Network of the Social Science Research Council (APN/SSRC), the American Political Science Association Centennial Research Grant, and the International Peace Research Association Foundation Grant.

Professor Babatunde's research interests include Conflict Resolution, Resources Governance, Human rights and Security, Peacebuilding, and Gender Studies. She co-authored the book "Managing Violent Religious Extremism in Fragile States: Building Institutional Capacity in Nigeria and Kenya" as part of the Routledge African Governance Series, which was recommended by CHOICE.

While in Oxford, Professor Babatunde will be working on a research project titled "Petromodernity and Cultural Resilience: Oil Conflict, Indigenous Ritual Practices, and Peacebuilding in Nigeria's Niger Delta." Her study will explore how certain extractive communities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria utilize their cultural belief systems to manage oil conflict and establish sustainable peace. Drawing from her ethnographic fieldwork, this research aims to elucidate how traditional belief systems and cultural practices are leveraged in extractive communities to resolve conflicts and foster peaceful coexistence.