Ola Osman

Western Academy Postdoctoral Scholar

Dr. Ola Osman earned her Ph.D. in Politics and International Studies from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar, and her Master’s degree in Women’s Studies from the University of Oxford as a Clarendon Scholar. Additionally, she was named an Honorary Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud Scholar. Dr. Osman’s interdisciplinary scholarship bridges International Relations and Black Studies, with a focus on Afro-pessimism. Her research investigates how the legacies of transatlantic slavery have shaped ethnic identities and hierarchies in sub-Saharan Africa, contributing to the proliferation of armed conflicts in the post-Cold War era. Building on her Ph.D. research, her next project examines why ex-combatant women took up arms during the Liberian war, their dual roles as perpetrators and victims of militarized violence, and their reintegration into society two decades later.

Osman featured

Meditations on the Dead, the Dying and the Displaced: Theorizing Structural Anti-blackness as the Root Cause of Africa’s ‘Forever Wars’

How can we liberate our theoretical inquiries in ways that confront the global machinations of racialized subjection, expropriation, and immiseration? An article by Western Academy Postdoctoral Scholar Ola Osman on global anti-blackness and white supremacy as enduring, foundational forces that choreograph and haunt the genealogy of international relations.

Read MoreMeditations on the Dead, the Dying and the Displaced: Theorizing Structural Anti-blackness as the Root Cause of Africa’s ‘Forever Wars’
Poster talk ola

Meditations on the Dead, the Dying and the Displaced: Theorizing Structural Anti-blackness as the Root Cause of Africa’s ‘Forever Wars’

How can we liberate our theoretical inquiries in ways that confront the global machinations of racialized subjection, expropriation, and immiseration? This workshop by Western Academy Postdoctoral Scholar Ola Osman interrogates global anti-blackness and white supremacy as enduring, foundational forces that choreograph and haunt the genealogy of international relations.

Read MoreMeditations on the Dead, the Dying and the Displaced: Theorizing Structural Anti-blackness as the Root Cause of Africa’s ‘Forever Wars’