Department of Politics and International Relations
Dr Remi Adekoya
Lecturer
Profile
Biography
Remi Adekoya’s main research interests include the construction of national and sub-national identities by political actors, the politics and emotions around identity and its role in international relations, developmental issues affecting Africa, and leadership in Africa.
Before joining academia, Remi was a political journalist and has written on national and international affairs for The Guardian, Sunday Times, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, Washington Post, Politico, Spectator, UnHerd and Standpoint among others.
He has provided sociopolitical analysis and commentary for CNN, BBC television and radio, Sky News, Al Jazeera, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), African International Television (AIT), Radio France International (RFI), Talk Radio 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 sits on the Home Office Strategic Race Board as an external expert. He 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 the host of the podcast How to Become a Leader in Africa.
Research
Overview
Remi has a long-standing interest in the links between identity, economics, history, psychology and politics, specifically how these all interplay to influence popular perceptions within specific identity groups that affect group relations at both national and international levels. He is similarly interested in the psychology of leadership.
His current research is focussed on trying to better understand the material, political and psychological processes involved with identity constructions in the 21st century and with how leadership works in Africa.
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.
Available PhD research projects
Dr Remi Adekoya welcomes PhD applications in the following areas:
- African politics and development issues
- Identity
- Identity politics
Publications
Full publications list
Remi’s publications include
- It's Not About Whiteness, It's About Wealth, Little, Brown (April 2023).
- Biracial Britain: A Different Way of Looking at Race, 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:
