Omowumi Banjo

Omowumi Elizabeth Banjo (Nee: Ogunleye) is an English language scholar and promoter of African culture and traditions. Her research interests are sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, African studies, and women and gender studies. She has vast experience in textual analysis, literary criticism, and ethnographical use of language.

In her academic sphere as an undergraduate, she majored in English language and minored in linguistics and Yoruba with a focus on textual exploration. The exploration addressed English literature, English composition, and English language arts which encompasses the analysis of every aspect of language, as well as the methods for studying and modeling them. Her graduate program paves a way to acquire analytical, research, communication, and cross-cultural skills in linguistic analysis, which include phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. These academic experiences have been used in research, with the findings having been presented at conferences and published in reputable humanities journals. She uses the platform of the English Scholars Association of Nigeria (ESAN) as a professional body where she is an active member disseminates this research information.

Omowumi’s academic and research achievements avail her of the opportunity to be employed as a lecturer at the Federal College of Animal Health and Production, Moor-Plantation, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, where she teaches the English language (GNS 101) and Communication in English (GNS 301). Her quest for professional development prompted her to apply to a Fulbright program, and she is the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at U-M in 2021, where she assisted in teaching Elementary Yoruba (AAS 112) and Intermediate Yoruba AAS 225).

She has developed a great scholarly experience in lecture delivery using both an online and in-person approach. Her research sits at the intersection of the concept of victimhood and its relationship to the idea of sexuality and intimate relationships in Nigeria. She is especially interested in understanding the important space of family relationships in the discourse of violence and victimhood. Her interest in pursuing a Masters in International and Regional Studies (MIRS) at U-M is anchored on filling the gap in scholarship on domestic and other gender-based violence in Nigeria. This is largely driven by three interconnected questions: How do literary scholars use languages (I am placing emphasis on the Yoruba language here) in their examination of gender-related violence in countries such as Nigeria? How intricately connected is gender-based violence in contemporary literature to gender violence in urban spaces in Nigeria? And in what ways do cultural practices interact with the understanding of gender roles in domestic relationships?