Dr Remi Adekoya
Associate Lecturer

Profile

Biography

Remi Adekoya’s main research interests include the discursive strategies used to construct national and sub-national identities by political actors, the politics and emotions around identity in the 21^st-century, and developmental issues affecting Africa.

Before joining academia, Remi was a political journalist who has written for Guardian, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, Washington Post, Politico, Spectator, The Times, and Standpoint among others. He has provided sociopolitical analysis and commentary for BBC, Sky News, Al Jazeera, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), African International Television (AIT), Radio France International (RFI), and Times Radio, among others. He is a former regular columnist for Business Day, a Nigerian daily, and a former political editor of Warsaw Business Journal. Remi holds a PhD from the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Sheffield as well as an MA in Law from the University of Warsaw.

He is currently not available to supervise PhD students.

Research

Overview

Remi’s current research is focussed on trying to better understand the political, emotional and broader psychological processes involved with identity and identity constructions in the 21^st-century, with a focus on racial and ethnic dynamics in multiracial Western societies and in Africa.

Remi has a long-standing interest in the links between identity, history, psychology and politics, specifically how these all interplay to influence popular social perceptions within specific identity groups today. His PhD investigated discursive constructions of sub-national identities in Nigeria by the country’s ‘Founding Fathers’ - Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Ahmadu Bello – in the decolonization period.

Publications

Full publications list

Remi’s publications include

Biracial Britain: A Different Way of Looking at Race, forthcoming book at Little, Brown (January 2021).
• ‘An Identity Reset,’ in Poland’s Memory Wars: Essays on Illiberalism, Jo Harper, ed. (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2018), pp.203-212.
‘Majority Rule; Minority Rights’, Standpoint (July 2020).
‘Europe Needs to Talk About Race Too’, Foreign Policy (June 2020).
African Reset: Will Covid-19 Bring Change?’, Standpoint (May 2020).
‘Democracy Has Failed in Nigeria When Voters No Longer Care Who Wins’, Guardian (March 2019).
‘Nigeria’s President is Not a Democrat’, Foreign Policy (February 2019).
‘Extreme Nationalism is As Polish as Pierogi’, Foreign Policy (November 2018).
‘Europe’s Donald Can Fight Dirty, Too’, Foreign Policy (August 2018).
‘Poland’s Holocaust Denialism Will Come Back to Haunt It’, Foreign Policy (February 2018).
‘Poland’s Prime Minister Is a Technocrat Banker and a Far-Right Populist at The Same Time’, Foreign Policy (December 2017).
‘Why Poland’s Law and Justice Party Remains So Popular’, Foreign Affairs (November 2017).
‘To Address Secessionists, Nigeria Must Decentralize Power’, Washington Post (October, 2017).
‘Buhari faces Multiple Crises in Nigeria’, Geopolitical Intelligence Services (October 2016).
‘Nigeria’s Chattering Classes: Poverty and Denial in Africa’, Review of African Political Economy (October 2016).
‘Xenophobic, Authoritarian – and Generous on Welfare: How Poland’s Right Rules’, Guardian (October 2016).
‘Privileged Nigerians Shouldn’t Downplay Poverty Just Because It Makes Us Look Bad’, Guardian (August 2016).
‘There is Corruption in Nigeria. But Don’t Call Us a Corrupt Country’, Guardian (May 2016).
‘Poland’s Martyrology’, Foreign Affairs (April 2016)
‘Prepare for a Pricklier Polish Foreign Policy’, Politico (October 2015).

Selected media articles:

• ‘Why Africans Worry About How Africa is Portrayed

Teaching

Undergraduate

Remi is very passionate about teaching which is what he enjoys most about working in academia. He currently teaches undergraduate classes in:

Department of Politics

Dr Remi Adekoya Associate Lecturer