Ẹniọlá Ànúolúwapọ́ Ṣóyẹmí is Departmental Lecturer (Senior Research Fellow from April 2024) in Political Philosophy and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government (BSG), University of Oxford. Prior to the BSG, she worked with Professor Neta Crawford on developing the Africa focus of the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute. Before that, she was a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. She obtained her Ph.D. in Political Science (major: political philosophy) from Boston University in 2017. Before entering academia, she worked at Chatham House, and then at the Guardian Newspaper where she was based in the press lobby of the UK House of Commons. She maintains a keen interest in news and media developments (new and old), in African countries.
Ẹniọlá’s academic work is focused on topics in contemporary and African political, moral, and legal philosophy. In particular, she works on questions of freedom, justice, and deliberative and participatory democracy. Her work is published, or forthcoming, in Political Theory, Philosophical Forum, Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, and the Routledge Handbook of African Political Philosophy. She has written publicly in Premium Times (Nigeria), the New York Times (USA), the Guardian (UK), the Conversation Africa, and the Republic Journal (Nigeria), among others. Her expert commentary has also featured in Weekendavisen, CKUT Montreal, and the New Yorker Radio Hour. Her poems have been published in Brittle Paper, Saraba Magazine, and Ake Review, among others.
Her first book, Law’s Moral Legitimacy: On Participation, Freedom, and Political Justice is forthcoming with Hart/Bloomsbury Publishing