About the Author

Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome is a Yoruba woman from Nigeria. She is an International Political Economist whose regional specialization is the African continent. She was educated at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, Long Island University, New York, and Columbia University, New York. An Assistant Professor of African Studies and Political Science, she teaches African Studies, Political Science and Women's Studies at Fordham University, New York. Her research interests lie in the areas of globalization; creating a new paradigm in how feminism addresses issues, and concerns related to the African woman; how the phenomenon of globalization has shaped the following: the relationship between democratization and economic liberalization, international human rights, African Immigration to the United States, and scholarship on the Yoruba people, culture and language, and African responses to these spin-off effects.

Mojubaolu was John LaFarge Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, as well as Visiting Professor at the Department of African and African American Studies, Fordham University for the 1996/97 semester. She is the author of "What Women? Whose Development? A Critical Analysis of Western Feminist Evangelism on African Women". in Oyeronke Oyewumi, ed. African Women and Imperialism: The Politics of Sisterhood, forthcoming Africa World Press, October 1998. "Bringing Government Closer to the People: ...." in Peter P. Ekeh et al, eds. Perspectives on Nigerian Federalism. She is currently working on a multi-level project on African Immigration to the United States, which hypothesizes that contemporary flows of population from the African continent are a response to the process of globalization. The consequences of immigration in turn, shape the nature of globalization. She has presented papers on this subject, and is involved in writing grant proposals to solicit funding. Fordham University awarded her a Faculty Research Grant to conduct a pilot study in the Summer of 1998. The study will result in the teaching of a course, organization of a conference, and a book titled: African Immigration to the United States: Causes and Consequences. The project will culminate in the establishment of an Institute for the Study of African Immigration to the United States.

Mojubaolu is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Fordham University's Department of African and African American Studies. She has been an active member of the African Studies Association and the Women's Caucus since she was a graduate student at Columbia University. She was the convenor of the Women's Caucus of the ASA from 1997 to 1999. She was the co-chair for the New York State Delegation to the National Summit on Africa.

As an African woman scholar, Mojubaolu has both a personal and professional interest in advancing the research into the study of the position of Africa in a rapidly changing global political economy. She is also interested in research on the responses of African peoples to the social, economic, and political challenges that we face as one millennium draws to an end and another is on the horizon.

Mojubaolu's training, research, and teaching are informed by an enduring interest in the study and analysis of the relationship between economic and political liberalization, particularly on the African continent. I also study the interplay between democracy and development in an Africa that must participate in a dynamic global environment.

Mojubaolu became interested in studying questions of gender, federalism, and citizenship within pluralist political systems as a consequence of her identity and experiences as an African woman. Her teaching and research examine and explain the nature of democracy in a changing world economy, specifically in an African setting. She teaches courses to both undergraduate and graduate students at Fordham University on African Politics, African Political Economy, Women and Gender in Africa, African History, and American Pluralism. She also supervises students' research and theses.