{"id":20223,"date":"2023-06-23T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T06:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/?p=20223"},"modified":"2023-06-25T22:18:49","modified_gmt":"2023-06-25T20:18:49","slug":"chatting-with-olabisi-d-akinkugbe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/chatting-with-olabisi-d-akinkugbe\/","title":{"rendered":"Chatting with Olabisi D. Akinkugbe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the latest interview of the V\u00f6lkerrechtsblog\u2019s symposium \u2018The Person behind the Academic\u2019! With us we have Prof. Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, and through the following questions, we will try to get a glimpse of his interests, sources of inspiration and habits. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Welcome Prof. Akinkugbe and thank you very much for accepting our invitation!<\/strong><\/p>\n

May I first ask what it was that brought you to academia and what made you stay?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My thanks to the team at V\u00f6lkerrechtsblog, and especially Sissy Katsoni, for the invitation to be part of this Symposium on \u2018The Person behind the Academic\u2019!<\/p>\n

Your first question on \u00a0what brought me to academia invites me to reflect on an area I have not always given much constructive thought to in the sense of a narrative or planning that made it happen.<\/p>\n

As an immigrant in Canada, the journey to academia was eclectic. Yet, there is a short answer once I have now reflected holistically:\u00a0 the influence of my parents who were teachers. Even if I did not pay attention to it, I cannot underestimate the role they played. Observing them teach so closely, preparing lesson notes over the weekends, and treating every child like they treated their own children was inspiring. While I operate in a different context today, I bring similar ethos \u2013 sense of community \u2013 to my research, teaching, and service work today.<\/p>\n

Here is a slightly longer one. My first teaching experience was as a fresh High School graduate in Nigeria where I was employed to teach after school lessons for middle school students. I taught a course called Commerce. \u00a0As an undergraduate student at the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, I was involved in many private tutorials for my peers. I just enjoyed teaching what I knew. Rumor had it that I had clear handwriting and made useful class notes which were simply photocopied by some students in my class and beyond.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

[Picture shared with Prof. Akinkugbe in 2015 via a Facebook post by a student who was not in his class but in possession of his original hand-written note].<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

My passion to share what I knew freely, came from a place of passion and desire to be kind to others. Through it, I was also able to foster a sense of community building that I can learn from others as well.<\/p>\n

After my Call to Nigerian Bar, I worked in the law firm of Messrs Aluko & Oyebode<\/a> alternating between the litigation and corporate departments of the Lagos office. While there, I continued to seek opportunities to teach \u2013 for free and as a way of giving back \u2013 at the University of Lagos, Faculty of Law. While the opportunity did not materialize immediately, I continued as a Legal Counsel on a public-private partnership road project in Lagos, Nigeria. Between my practice in the law firm and in-house positions at Lekki Concession Company, I obtained a master\u2019s degree from the University of Toronto. In 2010, I started contemplating a doctorate degree as pivotal to the type of infrastructure law and policy work, I would like to embark on for the future. I drafted a proposal. My thanks here to Prof. Michael Trebilcock (my LL.M. thesis supervisor) and Prof. Ibironke Odumosu-Ayanu who both reviewed my proposal for admission. Ronke was a year ahead of me at the Law School and she has and continues to be a huge inspiration in many ways as well.<\/p>\n

When I eventually proceeded on a Ph.D. degree in 2011 at the Common Law section of the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, one thing remained: the hope to teach a course or two at a university in the city I would work for free, ideally in Nigeria. But I am also married now, and we have had a young family.<\/p>\n

The first time I considered academia in Canada as a career seriously was in 2013! Here, I am eternally grateful to my wife, Adebola Esther Akinkugbe, who in the 2nd<\/sup> Year of my Ph.D. studies was clear in her advice that \u201cI should look for academic opportunities in Canada\u201d instead of going back to Nigeria. But I was also extremely nervous! A Nigerian-born, educated etc. dude with interests in Africa and international economic law knocking on Canadian academic doors with a reasonable chance of success was not necessarily the norm in 2011, as I could count how many black Professors there were!<\/p>\n

Here I am thankful also to Professor Obiora Okafor. My story has a lot to do with his own generosity and mentorship which started with a cold email in 2006 when I sort admission for my LL.M. degree. As I thought seriously about being an academic in Canada, I reached out to him in 2013. My ask on the call that afternoon from the desk at the Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC) at the Faculty of Law was this: to be considered seriously for an interview at a Canadian Law School, how many publications should I aim for at graduation? True to the \u201cDon\u201d as we call him, his response embodied the spirit of solidarity and nurturing beyond my question.<\/p>\n

Looking back, an all-important first academic conference on \u201cAfrica and International Law: Taking Stock and Moving Forward\u201d organized by Professor James T. Gathii at Albany Law School in 2012 offered the opportunity to build life-long relationships that remain so critical today in my academic career. Many conversations ensuing from this conference and the kindness of senior colleagues (turned friends and \u201cpartners in crime\u201d) offered much needed comfort and pathways to follow in building a career with integrity and inspiration in tough times. Life would then take its course as I landed my first academic position in January 2015 at the Faculty of Law, University of New Brunswick. Professor Jeremy Levitt was the Dean at the time. Our first meeting was in 2012 at Albany at the post-conference dinner in the company of James, Tony Anghie, Ibironke Odumosu-Ayanu among others. Prof. Levitt paid my dinner! We had great conversations as we walked to the hotel. I would later work with him as a Research Assistant when he visited the HRREC as a Fullbright Scholar.<\/p>\n

I moved to the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University in 2017 where I am now a tenured Associate Professor of Law (as of July 1, 2023).<\/p>\n

The thanks goes to my wife for the call-out which made me think seriously about the first time of the formal connection between my vocational interest in teaching and linking to a broader academic world as the path for a possible career in Canada. She made me think most seriously that the academic world is where I probably belong. That has proven to be true so far \u2013 I think!<\/p>\n

In terms of what made me stay \u2013 the fulfilment I find. Of all the career opportunities I have had, being in the academia has given me the most joy, liberty to think, to feel free, to be supportive of a community that is identifiable, to write on issues that I am passionate about, to learn and to express kindness through my work to others. As the years pass, moments, events, interactions affirm the fact that I stumbled upon the career I was possibly destined for \u2013 the academia.<\/p>\n

Could you share with us three authors that have had a major impact on your perception of justice?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a difficult one. I am a product of many encounters, conversations, writings (in different forms) and films. Prior to joining the academia, figures (and the expression of their works) like Funmilayo Ransom Kuti, Chinua Achebe, Obafemi Awolowo, Wole Soyinka, Elechi Amadi, readings about the Aba Women\u2019s Protest of 1929, Nnamdi Azikiwe, among others shaped my thinking and sense of a just society. These works were understandably pivotal to the socio-historical and economic construct of the Nigerian state. They were my earliest encounters with articulations of justice, and they continue to be important in my thinking.<\/p>\n

Since joining the academia, I have found home in the scholarly group Third World Approaches to International Law and their case for a just and more equal society. Many figures in TWAIL have and continue to bring major impact on my perception of justice. I will leave out naming specific authors.<\/p>\n

Which are three texts that you would wish all academics working on international law would read?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you. I will not suggest that there are three that are enough, and I am mindful that these classics were all written by scholars who identify as male, but I have found them especially insightful in many ways in my research.<\/p>\n