Moradewun Adejunmobi: “Joy and Pleasure Matters: African Pop Culture”


Moradewun Adejunmobi is a Professor at the University of California, Davis in the African American and African Studies Department. She also makes significant contributions to the French and Comparative Literature departments as well as a former chair of the Performance Studies Graduate Group. Adejunmobi has also taught at universities in Nigeria and Botswana.

Adejunmobi came to Bucknell in coordination with the Griot Institute and the Literary Studies Department to discuss her research and answer questions from students. The lunch chat, designed as a precurser to her lecture which took place later that day, was intimate yet lively with students excited to learn about her research and the personal experiences that inspired it. She emphasized her desire to converse with the students, listening to their ideas for upcoming research projects and offering them ideas for additional resource material. Students spoke with Adejunmobi about television shows, archetypal characters, and plot designs within West African media. The conversation ranged across her broad and diverse area of expertise. As an interdisciplinary scholar, she focuses on intersectionality between digital, print, and performances of pop culture in countries of West Africa, particularly Nigerian film and television, which her current research focuses on.

Overall, the lunch chat was a successful venture that had many students sticking around after the events conclusion to continue conversing with Adejunmobi.

(The food also deserves praise!)