Nigerian wins best thesis award in African, diaspora studies | EduCeleb
EduCeleb
30th November 2020
A Nigerian, Kudus Oluwatoyin Adebayo has emerged winner of the 2020 Institute of African and Diaspora Studies (IADS) Rahamon Bello Award for best PhD thesis in African and Diaspora studies.
Dr Adebayo who graduated from the Department of Sociology at the UI is a Research Fellow at Diaspora and Transnational Studies Unit of the Institute of African Studies (IAS) University of Ibadan.
Earlier in the year, Adebayo won the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) post-doctoral research fellowship award to investigate “Transnational livelihood, masculinity and family dynamics of Nigerian deportees from China”.
Adebayo’s thesis “Migration and Settlement experiences of Nigerians in Guangzhou, China” won $1000 dollars beating Dr Abiodun Bello of University of Lagos’s submission “Stylistics of identity and ideology in alter-native Yoruba music textuality’ to the second position”.
The third runner-up is Dr Nonzuzo Mbakazi of the University of Cape Town, South Africa with a thesis title “Understanding child care choices among low income employed mothers in urban and rural Kwazulu-Natal”.
Director, Institute of African and Diaspora Studies (IADS), University of Lagos Professor Muyiwa Falaiye, who announced the award on Monday in a Zoom meeting stated that the selection committee was impressed by the quality of the thesis submitted which made it difficult for them to prune down to the best three.
Professor Falaiye who announced that the awardees are expected at the University of Lagos for award presentations on 8th December, 2020 stated that all contestants are winners.
He advised current doctoral students across the continent to ensure that they conduct quality researches that will impact the knowledge economy and expand the frontier of knowledge.
While reacting, Adebayo stated that he was appreciative of the granting Institute for putting together the award and encouraging quality researches and excellent scholarship.
He thanked contenders in the competition saying ‘we are all winners in our own rights.’
The award-winning thesis explored and described ‘the processes, social relations and practices with which Nigerians increasingly establish themselves as a migrant community as well as their everyday experiences in Guangzhou city, China’
A total of 29 applications for the award were received across the continent before the last three were selected.