
Oludamini Ogunnaike
Gibson 438
Education
- PhD (African Studies and the Study of Religion), Harvard University
- MPhil (African Studies and the Study of Religion), Harvard University
- A.B. (Cognitive Neuroscience and African Studies), Harvard College
Research Interests
My research examines the philosophical and artistic dimensions of postcolonial, colonial, and pre-colonial Islamic and indigenous religious traditions of West and North Africa, especially Sufism and Ifa. My research falls into two general areas: a) the intellectual history and literary studies of the Islamic and indigenous traditions of West Africa, and b) employing the insights and ideas from these traditions to contribute to contemporary philosophical debates relevant to a variety of disciplines.
I am the author of Deep Knowledge: Ways of Knowing in Sufism and Ifa, Two West African Intellectual Traditions (Penn State University Press, 2020), winner of the Outstanding First Book Prize of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD) and Poetry in Praise of Prophetic Perfection: West African Madīḥ Poetry and its Precedents (Islamic Texts Society, 2020).
Funded by a grant from the Templeton Project, and in collaboration with colleagues I've recently begun a project on Sufi poetry and poetic knowledge, and am working on manuscripts on Yoruba mythology, Islamic philosophy in pre-colonial West Africa, and Afro-Carribbean and African Islamic decolonial thought and praxis.
I also work on the Philosophy of Religion, African Philosophy, Anthropology, Decoloniality, Race, and the modern state in Africa.
Teaching
Introduction to Yoruba Religions
Religion and Society in Nigeria
Introduction to Islam in Africa through the Arts
Introduction to African Philosophy: Race, Religion, Rationality
What Is Love?: Reflections on Love from the Islamic Tradition
Education in West Africa
Selected Publications
"The Logic of the Birds: Poetry and Poetic Knowledge," Renovatio 5, no. 2 (Spring 2022)
"At the Movies with African Sufis" Renovatio
An Elegy for George Floyd (Qasida), Sapelo Square
“The Transcendent Ethics of Tarbiya: Ibrahim Niasse’s Maqamat al-din al-thalath” in Mysticism and Ethics in Islam, Bilal Orfali and Mohammed Rustom (eds.) Beirut: AUB Press, 2021: 407-228.
“A Treatise on Practical and Theoretical Sufism in the Sokoto Caliphate: Shaykh Dan Tafa’s Exposition of Devotions (Bayān al-Taʿabbudāt).” Journal of Sufi Studies 10, no. 1-2 (2021): 152-173.
“African Philosophy Reconsidered: Religion, Race, and Rationality” Journal of Africana Religions 5, no. 2 (2017): 181-216.
Selected Awards and Grants
Art Seeking Understanding Grant, The Templeton Religion Trust, 2022
Outstanding First Book Prize of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD), 2021
Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society Young Writers’ Award, 2016-17