Assistant Professor
Akinyemi.Oyawale@warwick.ac.uk 
Tel: +44(0)24765 23931

Office: D1.31

Advice & Feedback Hours - Fridays 15:30 - 17:30 (Term time except Reading Week); Book Advice and FeedbackLink opens in a new window

About Me

I am an Assistant Professor in International Security and the course director for MA in International Relations. I hold a Bachelors in Politics and Psychology from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, a Masters in International Security from the University of Sussex, and a PhD in Politics from the University of East Anglia, Norwich. I have over a decade of teaching experience at both secondary and post-secondary levels and my teaching philosophy is underpinned by the idea of NLB - Nobody Left Behind. In terms of teaching experience at tertiary institutional level in the UK, I was formerly an Associate Tutor in Politics and International Relations at the University of East Anglia until July 2019 where I won the Arts and Humanities Outreach and Public Engagement Prize in 2018 and was a finalist for the Arts and Humanities Teaching Prize in 2019. Outside of teaching and research, I am a casual boxer and a community development leader with multiple awards such as Rivers State award for excellence in 2011 and the much coveted Nigerian President's National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Award for Excellence - the highest youth award in Nigeria in 2012 in my collection.

Winner of the Social Sciences Faculty Award and the Butterworth Memorial Award (2023).Link opens in a new window

In recognition of my contribution to teaching and student support, I was recently awarded the much coveted Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence (WATE) and the Butterworth Memorial Award for excellent early career scholars. To sum up my approach:

 My teaching philosophy is underpinned by the doctrine of Nobody Left Behind. In my teaching, I view students as partners with agency to not merely listen and absorb knowledge from a so-called ‘sage on a stage’, rather as active participants who bring a diversity of rich lived experiences. Combining a Warwick’s ambition of boundless learning with a critical ethos that encourages endless questioning and a transgressive (against oppressive structures) praxis, I have actively supported students in their overall development including providing academic and pastoral support, feedback and assessment that can help students grow.

Teaching Responsibilities

I am the current course director for MA in International Relations and module convener for PO926: Theories and Issues in International RelationsLink opens in a new window. I have delivered guest lectures on first and third year modules on security and race in IR.

Research Interests and PhD Supervision

I am interested in a critical interrogation of International Relations theory more broadly including its often unacknowledged raced and gendered dimensions and in engaging with concrete experiences and practices of (in)security situated within critical security studies. I currently investigate terrorism, counterterrorism, radicalization, extremism mainly from a 'bottom-up' perspective (vernacular security, feminist, everyday, postcolonial, etc) and broader aspects of international security. My ongoing monograph project examines how Boko Haram and state counterterrorism have interacted to impact on the (in)security of citizens in Northeast Nigeria. I am available for PhD supervision on topics related to security, terrorism and counterterrorism (from a critical perspective), radicalisation, violent extremism and 'bottom-up' (in)security more broadly.

Current PhD Supervision (2nd): Mr Usman AlabiLink opens in a new window. Thesis Title: The Political Economy of Counterterrorism in Nigeria.

Selected Publications

Oyawale A. (2024) La biopolítica racial de las intervenciones africanas: examinando la resiliencia y la inseguridad en ÁfricaLink opens in a new window. Relaciones Internacionales.

Oyawale A. (2023) Ontological (In)Security Under Postcolonial Conditions: Countering Violent Extremism in NigeriaLink opens in a new window. In Heath-Kelly C and Gruber B (eds) Vulnerability: Governing the Social through Security Politics. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Oyawale, A. (2022). The impact of (counter-)terrorism on public (in)security in Nigeria: A vernacular analysis. Security Dialogue, 53(5), 420–437. https://doi.org/10.1177/09670106211063796

Oyawale A. (2020) The 'Pied Piper' of Maiduguri: Boko Haram and Violent Extremism in NigeriaLink opens in a new window. In: Jackson R, Martini A and Ford K (eds) Encountering Extremism: A Critical Examination of Theoretical Issues and Local Challenges. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Cochrane, L. and Oyawale, A., 2019. The Conflict in Northeast Nigeria - Akin OyawaleLink opens in a new window. Nokoko, pp.1-15.

Proposed, Forthcoming & Ongoing Projects:

Conferences/Workshops: Vernacular Security Studies Workshop on 27 November 2023 and a Special Issue on twenty years of vernacular security research, with Lee JarvisLink opens in a new window (Loughborough Uni) and Michael Lister (Oxford Brookes).

Ongoing Book and Article Projects:

Vernacular Security and the Global South: Boko Haram, Everyday Politics, and Public Understandings of Terrorism in Nigeria (Book).

The State, Boko Haram and Vernacular Security: Subversive Masculinities in Nigerian Counterterrorism (article). Proposed for a Special Issue titled "Vernacular Security Studies: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow?" provisionally accepted by the Security Dialogue (Autumn 2025).

Race and the State in IR.

The Political Economy of (In)Security in Africa.

Twitter: @akinoyawale