Grace Adeniyi-Ogunyankin
Biographic Data
| ID | 1286193 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Grace Adeniyi-Ogunyankin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Grace |
| FAMILY NAME | Adeniyi-Ogunyankin |
| SIGNATURE | ADENIYI-OGUNYANKIN G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Queen's University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7307-0005 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 52 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Women’s Embodied Experiences of Debt in the Urban Global South
Feminist political economy has been enhanced by understanding the urban as a dynamic site of social reproduction. This article reveals how one aspect of social reproduction – women’s accounting for and managing the sociality around debt, that is, caring for debt – is expressed through embodied gendered norms that play out in the everyday lives of women in low-income urban neighborhoods in the Global South. Drawing on geo-ethnographic research, th…
Moments
Moments narrates the changes that have taken place over a span of four years, nine months, and four days in the life of a woman known as Mummy Ayesha who lives in Challenge, a neighborhood in Ibadan SouthWest Local Government Area. The experiences of Mummy Ayesha are drawn from Genurb (Urbanization, Gender & the Global South) Ibadan City Research Team data. Moments showcases the danger of a single story about poverty, illustrates the temporal and…
Empowered, almost
What's hair got do with it?" is the question at the heart of this paper that is based on fieldwork in Lagos and Ibadan, Nigeria (June 2022–September 2022; April–June 2023). These two cities are undergoing urban change, particularly in terms of renewal, beautification, and more regional and foreign investments. I engage with ethnographic fiction and ethnographic reflection to explore youth's desire to consume luxury as a pathway to empowerment via…
Urban geography in crisis times
In this short intervention addressing the impact of crises on geographical knowledge practices, we, members of GenUrb (a multi-sited, longitudinal, partnered urban research project), ask, "what counts as crisis?", sketching out epistemological and methodological points about our project's engagement with this call. We query the adeptness of dominant Eurocentric epistemologies in addressing crises, adopting the work of Bedour Alagraa, who places c…
New orientations
In this commentary, I engage with Simone et al.'s article, ‘Inhabiting the Extensions’, by reflecting on its connections to my work on uncertainty and urban change in Ibadan and Lagos, Nigeria, and to my recent turn to queer theory to better understand the urban. In doing so, I highlight how youth think a new orientation towards a luxurious lifestyle is their answer to instability and consider the importance of embracing incoherence as a way of h…
Decolonising feminist explorations of urban futures
How do decolonial feminist urban imaginaries of urban futures begin to interrogate twenty-first century urban life?The urban futures signaled in this special issue highlight three dimensions of urban imaginaries.The first connects the privatization and commodification of urban infrastructures to state-based and capitalist discursive efforts to make the urban.The second concerns temporal convergences of past, present and future in visions of the u…
Everyday urbanisms in the pandemic city
Drawing on GenUrb’s comparative research undertaken in mid-2020 with communities in five cities—Cochabamba, Bolivia, Delhi, India, Georgetown, Guyana, Ibadan, Nigeria, and Shanghai, China—we engage in an intersectional analysis of the gendered impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in women’s everyday lives. Our research employs a variety of context-specific methods, including virtual methods, phone interviews, and socially-distanced interviews to enga…
Grappling with the Fragmentations
This essay engages with the question of Black studies in Canada vis-à-vis African studies. To address this question, I explore the unsatisfactory distinctions I have made between African feminisms and Black feminisms because they dangerously replicate the colonial division of humanity. As such, I focus on the distinction to think through how we can imagine the future of Black studies in Canada. In so doing, I consider correspondences and interact…
In/out of Nigeria
This article explores the murkiness of fieldwork and writing that often comes with simultaneous positioning as insider/outsider. I engage with two key themes: First, identity, legitimacy and representation and, second, the gray spaces between theory and reality. The first theme examines the contradictions of being perceived as both an insider and outsider; the complexities of identity and language while at ‘home’ in the field, and the challenges …
The City of Our Dream
Ibadan, Nigeria, has been an outlier in the ranking of world-class cities. But in the past seven years, amidst the circulating Africa Rising narrative, Ibadan has embarked on what I call an Afropolitan Imagineering project of owambe urbanism. Afropolitan Imagineering refers to the production of new images/narratives of Africa and Africans as world-class and cosmopolitan. Owambe urbanism is a spatio-temporal neoliberal project concerning destinati…
A “Scented Declaration of Progress”
Branded as “Africa's first luxury perfume”, the Scent of Africa perfume is a “scented declaration of progress”. Particularly fascinating is the commercial advertisement for the perfume, which I argue to be an “Afropolitan Imagineering” project that is intended to signal Africa's rise and its new association with global cosmopolitanism. At first glance, the Scent of Africa perfume advertisement seems to point to the ways in which Imagineering proj…
(Un)African women
The concrete and abstract geographies of difference on the African continent not only arise from environmental, socio-cultural and religious factors but also from the historical and differential impacts and experiences of colonization and its legacies. In this paper, we use the web series, An African City, as a reference point, to examine the troubling nature of binary depictions of a colonial/traditional Africa and a new/modern/global Africa. Re…
When will I get my rest?” Neo-liberalism, women, class and ageing in Ibadan, Nigeria
In-depth interviews about gender and the urban political economy in Ibadan, Oyo State Nigeria with a sample of 24 women aged 46 to 83 years revealed that there are class differences in ageing as it pertains to women's experiences of financial security and care work. Based on interview responses, this Briefing argues that neo-liberalism has exacerbated the class disparity in ageing among women in Ibadan. Neo-liberalism has heightened urban inequal…
Everyday urbanisms in the pandemic city
Drawing on GenUrb’s comparative research undertaken in mid-2020 with communities in five cities—Cochabamba, Bolivia, Delhi, India, Georgetown, Guyana, Ibadan, Nigeria, and Shanghai, China—we engage in an intersectional analysis of the gendered impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in women’s everyday lives. Our research employs a variety of context-specific methods, including virtual methods, phone interviews, and socially-distanced interviews to enga…
The City of Our Dream
Ibadan, Nigeria, has been an outlier in the ranking of world-class cities. But in the past seven years, amidst the circulating Africa Rising narrative, Ibadan has embarked on what I call an Afropolitan Imagineering project of owambe urbanism. Afropolitan Imagineering refers to the production of new images/narratives of Africa and Africans as world-class and cosmopolitan. Owambe urbanism is a spatio-temporal neoliberal project concerning destinati…
A “Scented Declaration of Progress”
Branded as “Africa's first luxury perfume”, the Scent of Africa perfume is a “scented declaration of progress”. Particularly fascinating is the commercial advertisement for the perfume, which I argue to be an “Afropolitan Imagineering” project that is intended to signal Africa's rise and its new association with global cosmopolitanism. At first glance, the Scent of Africa perfume advertisement seems to point to the ways in which Imagineering proj…
Decolonising feminist explorations of urban futures
How do decolonial feminist urban imaginaries of urban futures begin to interrogate twenty-first century urban life?The urban futures signaled in this special issue highlight three dimensions of urban imaginaries.The first connects the privatization and commodification of urban infrastructures to state-based and capitalist discursive efforts to make the urban.The second concerns temporal convergences of past, present and future in visions of the u…
In/out of Nigeria
This article explores the murkiness of fieldwork and writing that often comes with simultaneous positioning as insider/outsider. I engage with two key themes: First, identity, legitimacy and representation and, second, the gray spaces between theory and reality. The first theme examines the contradictions of being perceived as both an insider and outsider; the complexities of identity and language while at ‘home’ in the field, and the challenges …
When will I get my rest?” Neo-liberalism, women, class and ageing in Ibadan, Nigeria
In-depth interviews about gender and the urban political economy in Ibadan, Oyo State Nigeria with a sample of 24 women aged 46 to 83 years revealed that there are class differences in ageing as it pertains to women's experiences of financial security and care work. Based on interview responses, this Briefing argues that neo-liberalism has exacerbated the class disparity in ageing among women in Ibadan. Neo-liberalism has heightened urban inequal…
Urban geography in crisis times
In this short intervention addressing the impact of crises on geographical knowledge practices, we, members of GenUrb (a multi-sited, longitudinal, partnered urban research project), ask, "what counts as crisis?", sketching out epistemological and methodological points about our project's engagement with this call. We query the adeptness of dominant Eurocentric epistemologies in addressing crises, adopting the work of Bedour Alagraa, who places c…
(Un)African women
The concrete and abstract geographies of difference on the African continent not only arise from environmental, socio-cultural and religious factors but also from the historical and differential impacts and experiences of colonization and its legacies. In this paper, we use the web series, An African City, as a reference point, to examine the troubling nature of binary depictions of a colonial/traditional Africa and a new/modern/global Africa. Re…
When will I get my rest?” Neo-liberalism, women, class and ageing in Ibadan, Nigeria
In-depth interviews about gender and the urban political economy in Ibadan, Oyo State Nigeria with a sample of 24 women aged 46 to 83 years revealed that there are class differences in ageing as it pertains to women's experiences of financial security and care work. Based on interview responses, this Briefing argues that neo-liberalism has exacerbated the class disparity in ageing among women in Ibadan. Neo-liberalism has heightened urban inequal…
A “Scented Declaration of Progress”
Branded as “Africa's first luxury perfume”, the Scent of Africa perfume is a “scented declaration of progress”. Particularly fascinating is the commercial advertisement for the perfume, which I argue to be an “Afropolitan Imagineering” project that is intended to signal Africa's rise and its new association with global cosmopolitanism. At first glance, the Scent of Africa perfume advertisement seems to point to the ways in which Imagineering proj…
(Un)African women
The concrete and abstract geographies of difference on the African continent not only arise from environmental, socio-cultural and religious factors but also from the historical and differential impacts and experiences of colonization and its legacies. In this paper, we use the web series, An African City, as a reference point, to examine the troubling nature of binary depictions of a colonial/traditional Africa and a new/modern/global Africa. Re…
In/out of Nigeria
This article explores the murkiness of fieldwork and writing that often comes with simultaneous positioning as insider/outsider. I engage with two key themes: First, identity, legitimacy and representation and, second, the gray spaces between theory and reality. The first theme examines the contradictions of being perceived as both an insider and outsider; the complexities of identity and language while at ‘home’ in the field, and the challenges …
The City of Our Dream
Ibadan, Nigeria, has been an outlier in the ranking of world-class cities. But in the past seven years, amidst the circulating Africa Rising narrative, Ibadan has embarked on what I call an Afropolitan Imagineering project of owambe urbanism. Afropolitan Imagineering refers to the production of new images/narratives of Africa and Africans as world-class and cosmopolitan. Owambe urbanism is a spatio-temporal neoliberal project concerning destinati…
Grappling with the Fragmentations
This essay engages with the question of Black studies in Canada vis-à-vis African studies. To address this question, I explore the unsatisfactory distinctions I have made between African feminisms and Black feminisms because they dangerously replicate the colonial division of humanity. As such, I focus on the distinction to think through how we can imagine the future of Black studies in Canada. In so doing, I consider correspondences and interact…
New orientations
In this commentary, I engage with Simone et al.'s article, ‘Inhabiting the Extensions’, by reflecting on its connections to my work on uncertainty and urban change in Ibadan and Lagos, Nigeria, and to my recent turn to queer theory to better understand the urban. In doing so, I highlight how youth think a new orientation towards a luxurious lifestyle is their answer to instability and consider the importance of embracing incoherence as a way of h…
Decolonising feminist explorations of urban futures
How do decolonial feminist urban imaginaries of urban futures begin to interrogate twenty-first century urban life?The urban futures signaled in this special issue highlight three dimensions of urban imaginaries.The first connects the privatization and commodification of urban infrastructures to state-based and capitalist discursive efforts to make the urban.The second concerns temporal convergences of past, present and future in visions of the u…
Everyday urbanisms in the pandemic city
Drawing on GenUrb’s comparative research undertaken in mid-2020 with communities in five cities—Cochabamba, Bolivia, Delhi, India, Georgetown, Guyana, Ibadan, Nigeria, and Shanghai, China—we engage in an intersectional analysis of the gendered impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in women’s everyday lives. Our research employs a variety of context-specific methods, including virtual methods, phone interviews, and socially-distanced interviews to enga…
Moments
Moments narrates the changes that have taken place over a span of four years, nine months, and four days in the life of a woman known as Mummy Ayesha who lives in Challenge, a neighborhood in Ibadan SouthWest Local Government Area. The experiences of Mummy Ayesha are drawn from Genurb (Urbanization, Gender & the Global South) Ibadan City Research Team data. Moments showcases the danger of a single story about poverty, illustrates the temporal and…
Empowered, almost
What's hair got do with it?" is the question at the heart of this paper that is based on fieldwork in Lagos and Ibadan, Nigeria (June 2022–September 2022; April–June 2023). These two cities are undergoing urban change, particularly in terms of renewal, beautification, and more regional and foreign investments. I engage with ethnographic fiction and ethnographic reflection to explore youth's desire to consume luxury as a pathway to empowerment via…
Urban geography in crisis times
In this short intervention addressing the impact of crises on geographical knowledge practices, we, members of GenUrb (a multi-sited, longitudinal, partnered urban research project), ask, "what counts as crisis?", sketching out epistemological and methodological points about our project's engagement with this call. We query the adeptness of dominant Eurocentric epistemologies in addressing crises, adopting the work of Bedour Alagraa, who places c…
Women’s Embodied Experiences of Debt in the Urban Global South
Feminist political economy has been enhanced by understanding the urban as a dynamic site of social reproduction. This article reveals how one aspect of social reproduction – women’s accounting for and managing the sociality around debt, that is, caring for debt – is expressed through embodied gendered norms that play out in the everyday lives of women in low-income urban neighborhoods in the Global South. Drawing on geo-ethnographic research, th…
Sociology (10 works) · Gender Studies (8 works) · Law (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Aesthetics (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Geography (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · Art (3 works) · Colonialism (3 works)