Postdoctoral Researcher in Yoruba print culture

Postdoctoral Researcher in Yoruba print culture

Job ID: 30462

About Ghent University

Ghent University is a world of its own. Employing more than 15,000 people, it is actively involved in education and research, management and administration, as well as technical and social service provision on a daily basis. It is one of the largest, most exciting employers in the area and offers great career opportunities. With its 11 faculties and more than 80 departments offering state-of-the-art study programmes grounded in research in a wide range of academic fields, Ghent University is a logical choice for its staff and students.

Applications are invited for a five-month postdoctoral fellowship (January 1, 2027, to May 31, 2027). The successful applicant will coordinate and conduct research within the ERC-funded Yoruba Print Culture project led by Prof. Dr. Shola Adenekan at the Department of Languages and Cultures, Ghent University, Belgium. Under the direction of the project’s PI, the Postdoctoral Researcher will help with the concluding aspects of the project. The project is funded by the European Research Council, with Grant Agreement ID: 949557.

You will be working within the Department of Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts & Philosophy. You will be part of a vibrant Africanist scholar community within the faculty and department. There is no possibility of extension beyond June 30, 2026.

Profile

You hold a PhD on have submitted a PhD by the end of December 2026. In either Literary Studies with a focus on African Studies, African literature; Yoruba Studies; or Digital Humanities.

• You r research focus is Africa, preferably in Yoruba-speaking areas of West Africa;
• You have the necessary leadership capacitiesto conduct independent archival research on Yoruba print culture and cultural productions in Nigeria, West Africa and the UK;
• You can work in a collegial and respectful way with authorities, researchers and workers in Nigeria and West Africa;
• Some familiarity with network analysis, especially software, will be a bonus;
• Willingness to help maintain the project’s website and database
• You have experience of building relationships with international colleagues;
• You have published in international peer-reviewed journals;
• You have presented at international conferences;
• You have good knowledge of English and Yoruba, and a bonus will be knowledge of French to communicate with archivists and librarians in Benin Republic;
• You are a dynamic and enthusiastic team member;
• You believe that interdisciplinary collaboration is possible and/or desirable.

Project Description

This project examines how networks of people with shared and sometimes divergent interests in religion, journalism and literature managed to change the course of Yoruba and Nigerian history through the printing press. This project fills this research gap by looking at over 100 years of print culture in the Yoruba-speaking region of Nigeria and West Africa, and its cross-cultural connection with other cultural forms. This study hypothesises that the contribution of Yoruba print culture to the emergence of new cultural forms – especially in literature and the performing arts sectors - is yet to be fully exploited and explained by researchers because they have concentrated on a small range of research materials. Due to its uniqueness, this culture constitutes a starting point for articulating the idea of modernity in a Nigerian context and for understanding contemporary literary history in Nigeria and West Africa. As the precursor to the recruitment of Yoruba people into the European modernity project, Yoruba print culture is important not only because it was founded at the heart of the European colonial project, with its literature becoming a major medium of anti-colonial struggle, but also because it uncovers a robust history of urban engagements with modernity. Additionally, contemporary ideas about Christianity and Islam in West Africa, especially in Yoruba-speaking states, are foregrounded in Yoruba print culture because it started the debate on what constitutes the arts of being Yoruba.

At the heart of this study is the combination of research methods that captures the way in which networks emerged from Yoruba print culture since the 1850s. This project will work with local researchers and archivists in West Africa. What this study aims to discover is not just the spectacular events that marked Yoruba print culture, but also how everyday experience by ordinary people is mediated through the print culture and the cultural forms it helped to propagate.

Job Description

• You will be an Africanist scholar, with expertise in African literature or comparative African studies (Yoruba studies, etc.). It is hoped that the person will possess skills in di