Research associates

Rémi Jenvrin

RemiJenvrin

Remi Jenvrin

Junior Research Associate ; INFRAPATRI

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My research in geography lies at the crossroads of two fields of interest: natures and cities and heritage processes.

My doctoral thesis at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France is based on an ethnography of the city dwellers relationships to nature in Porto-Novo, Benin Republic and Òṣogbo, Nigeria. Among the many relationships that unfold between human groups and plants, my research explores the social-spatial transformations of urban populations’ attachments to nature in these two cities. In a context where African cities are mainly studied through objects that represent their modernity or its consequences, such as concrete or waste, I chose to look at urban trees and urban forests to think about contemporary African urban realities. By mobilizing work in critical geography, including urban political ecology, anthropology of nature and environmental history, the aim of my thesis is to document the diversity of the heritage processes involved in composing and recomposing the relationships between city dwellers and urban nature.

Latest publications

(to be published), « Au pied des arbres et des statues, quand la forêt fait ville ouverte au monde », Techniques et Culture.

2024, «TASSI (Sara), Ville de lignage.Généalogies urbaines à Ajacé/Xọgbonú/Porto-Novo, Genève, MētisPresses, 2023, 304 pages», Politique africaine, 3-4, N°175-176, p.244-246

2024 avec Salomé Isibhenmen Okoekpen, « Deux itinéraires diasporiques de recherche Nord-Sud : retours réflexifs autour de négociations identitaires multiples entre l’Europe et l’Afrique de l’Ouest », Migrations Société, 4, N°198, p.67-82

2022 avec Juliette Reflé « Mise en récits et analyse des changements environnementaux, perspective nigériane », Revue internationale Cahier des UMIFRE, N°9 p.26-29

Abiola Ayodokun

Abiola_Ayodokun Dr Abiola Ayodokun

Senior Research Associate

Deputy Project Coordinator Nigeria Watch

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Dr Abiola Victoria Ayodokun is a distinguished scholar with a Ph.D. in Gender Studies from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. She is the co-founder of Epot Integrated Concept, a research initiative dedicated to exploring and preserving Africa’s rich cultural heritage. Currently, she serves as the Deputy Project Coordinator of Nigeria Watch, a project that monitors lethal violence, conflict, and human security in Nigeria. Nigeria Watch is hosted at IFRA-Nigeria, with Prof. Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos as its scientific director.

Dr Ayodokun’s academic and research interests focus on gender, charcoal production, conflict, and the environment, with a particular emphasis on gender construction in the workplace. Her scholarly contributions have been recognized through several grants and certifications, including the Nancy “Penny” Schwartz Student Travel Grant from the African Studies Association (ASA), British Academy-funded Writing Workshop (Lagos Studies Association), and awards from York University (Canada), the University of Ibadan (Nigeria Energy and Society in Nigeria program), and the American University of Technology's Online Teaching Certificate.

She is an active member of several professional organizations including the Women Research and Documentation Centre (WORDOC), the Society for Peace Studies and Practice (SPSP) as an associate member, the Peace and Security Working Group (PSWG), the International Practitioner Network – Every Casualty, the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators (ICMC), the African Studies Association (ASA), and the Lagos Studies Association (LSA).

Femi Olanrewaju

FemiB

Femi Olanrewaju

Junior Research Associate & FEF "Alternative Archives" Coordinator

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I am a multidisciplinary professional with expertise in landscape architecture, architecture, and cultural heritage preservation. I hold a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Lagos and a Master’s degree in Architecture from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife. My unpublished thesis, Conservation of a Cultural Landscape: A Case Study of Osun Grove, focused on managing and preserving cultural landscapes using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), provided me with a strong foundation in heritage conservation.

This expertise facilitated my role as the Project Coordinator for the Religious Architectural Heritage of Ibadan, one of the components of the Nigerian Heritage Digitisation Program, a project funded by the Solidarity Fund for Innovative Projects (FSPI) under IFRA-Nigeria. In this role, I led the digitization and contextualization of Ibadan’s religious architectural heritage, resulting in a public exhibition at the National Museum of Unity, Ibadan. My works examine how Yoruba Isese (traditional religion) influences architectural forms, spatial organization, and the ritual and communal functions of these space, an area I intend to explore further in my doctoral research.

Additionally, I am one of the coordinators of the Nigerian Alternative Heritages Initiative, funded by the French Embassy Fund (FEF), at the New Culture Studio in Ibadan. This project focuses on preservation of the legacy of Demas Nwoko, a visionary artist-architect whose extensive works face the risk of deterioration. This initiative promotes research, cultural activities, and academic projects that explore the intersections of art, architecture, digital humanities, and Nigerian heritage at the New Culture Studio, Ibadan. We aim to safeguard his legacy and inspire future generations of scholars, artists, and creators.

My work is driven by a commitment to cultural preservation, digital heritage, and the exploration of indigenous knowledge systems. I am passionate about leveraging technology to document, conserve, and share Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage with a global audience.

Latest publications

(to be published), Femi Olanrewaju, Yoruba Traditional Religious Canvass of Ibadan hinterland. Lagos Studies Association Conference paper.

Adedeji Adebayo

Deji 2 Dr Adedeji Adebayo

Senior Research Associate

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I hold a Peace and Conflict Studies doctorate from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, where I also teach in the Department of Peace, Security and Humanitarian Studies. My research interest lies at the crossroad of gender, electoral politics, and structural violence.

My doctoral thesis focused on the impact of women’s representation in legislative policymaking, in selected sub-national assemblies in southwest Nigeria. This study, among others, identified that constituency services carried out by female representatives revealed their policy preferences for health, education, women empowerment, and financial support for widows and the elderly. From 2022 to 2024, I was a lecturer at Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria. I am also a postdoctoral laureate of the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme 2024 Atlas programme at Les Afriques dans le monde (LAM), Sciences Po, Bordeaux, France.

Latest Publications

Adebayo Adedeji and Olutayo Molatokunbo A. S. (2024). Women’s participation in Nigeria’s 2023 elections: A micro-level analysis, Journal of African Elections, 23.1: 93-113.

Adebayo Adedeji (2024). ‘Getting in touch with the out of reach: Fieldwork strategies in research on women and politics (South-West of Nigeria).’ Sources. Materials & Fieldwork in African Studies, 7: 1-37. https://doi.org/10.4000/sources.1351.

Adebayo Adedeji (2022). Gender Studies in Nigeria: Growth and institutional context of semi-autonomous centres, Journal of International Women Studies. 23.2: 12-27

Nwankwor Chiedo and Adebayo Adedeji (2021). Women legislators in legislative policymaking in Africa. In Onyango, G. (Ed.). (2021). Routledge Handbook of Public Policy in Africa (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003143840

Prof Barbara Morovich

Barbara Morovich team picture

Dr Barbara Morovich

Senior Research Associate

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I hold a master's degree in archaeology from the University of Trieste (Italy), a doctorate in anthropology and ethnology from EHESS-Paris (France) and a Habilitation (HDR) in social anthropology (Université de Paris-Cité). I’m currently Associate Professor in social anthropology at the École nationale supérieure d'architecture of the University of Strasbourg, and on detachment as director at IFRA-Nigeria.

In my view, the anthropologist, far from being a mere observer of the society, is involved in its making: her/his economically, politically and physically ‘situated’ view must be deconstructed. After a thesis on religious movements in disadvantaged contexts in Nairobi (Kenya), I focused on social emergences and socio-spatial, memory and heritage transformations in working-class or stigmatized neighbourhoods affected by urban change in France (Strasbourg), Argentina (Buenos Aires) and South Africa (Johannesburg). To carry out a 10-year fieldwork project in a stigmatized neighbourhood of Strasbourg, I founded a transdisciplinary association, Horizome. This has led to a strong desire to democratise anthropological knowledge, thanks to projects co-constructed with community players, leading to the publication of transdisciplinary works.

The research I carry out in Nigeria has two components. First, the setting up of a project to capitalise research into the digitisation of archives to create a network of researchers in Africa and Europe on African digital archives: the “Archiving and digitizing the future from Africa: production, circulation, mobilisation” project. Secondly, a field-work in Ibadan, to explore the dynamics of urban change (demolitions, renovations, deforestation, etc.) in relation to so-called ‘cultural’, memorialisation and heritage projects, which mask neo-liberal logics.

After 3 years as IFRA-Nigeria Director, I am now a Professor at the Department of Urbanism in the Université Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Latest publications

2025 (forthcoming): Céline Barrère, Muriel Girard, Barbara Morovich (coord.), « Faire avec ou défaire l’héritage : espaces, architectures et paysages de la colonialité / Making or breaking with legacy: colonial spaces, landscapes and architecture », Les Cahiers de la recherche architecturale et urbaine et paysagère.

2025 (forthcoming): Barbara Morovich & Sa’eed Husaini, « Promises and Perils of Participation in Digital Restitution Projects in Nigeria ». (Submitted to Journal of African Cultural Studies).

2023: Barbara Morovich et Monique Selim (coord.), « Imaginaires en pandémie », Journal des Anthropologues, n° 172-173, 2023.

2023: Judith Hayem et Barbara Morovich, « Un jardin urbain rastafari face au Covid en Afrique du Sud », Journal des Anthropologues, n° 172-173, 2023, dans « Imaginaires en pandémie », Barbara Morovich et Monique Selim (coord.), p. 43-60.

2022: Barbara Morovich, « Hautepierre, Strasbourg. L’entre-deux d’une situation de rénovation urbaine : négociations, ruses et espaces associatifs », in O. Boucheron et M. Palumbo (dir.), L’Entre-deux barres, une ethnographie de la transformation des ensembles de logements collectifs par leurs habitants, Presse universitaire de Saint-Étienne.

2021: Barbara Morovich & Pauline Guinard, « An Uncertain Heritage and Resistance: Transforming the Drill Hall in Johannesburg », in Hilton Judin (dir.), Falling monuments, reluctant ruins. The persistence of the past in the architecture of apartheid, Johannesburg, Wits University Press, p. 174-190.