Temilola Alanamu

Temilola Alanamu

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College: College of Humanities
Discipline: History
Department: History
Research Centre/Unit: African History

I am an African historian with a specialism on gender. After graduating with a First Class BA degree in History and Information from the University of Ghana,  I worked at the Nigerian National Assembly for the mandatory one year Nigerian Youth Service. At this institution, my observation that the Nigerian constitution was a conflation of British Colonial Law and Nigerian indigenous sensibilities sparked my interest in early western contact in Nigeria (specifically Yorubaland in South west Nigeria). I went on to pursue this line of enquiry as an MPhil in Historical studies at Cambridge University 2009/2010. However, my plans changed considerably when I stumbled onto the field of gender history while conducting research in the CMS (Church Missionary Society) archives . Although I had no prior gender training, differences in the reception of Christianity based on sex, socio-economic status, and political inclinations was too glaring to ignore. In order to explore the field of gender more extensively, I enrolled in an MA in Gender and International Development at Warwick University in 2010/2011. After completing my dissertation on women's empowerment in modern day Namibia, I graduated with a distinction. As an International Doctoral Scholar at Exeter University, I have returned to the history of Yorubaland to explore constructions of masculinities and femininities in the nineteenth century. Themes such as childhood socialisation, marital consent, familial bonds, deviance, constructions of old age and religion feature prominently in my research.