“My name is Michael Eniola Oshindoro. I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of African Cultural Studies. I received a Masters in English with a specialization in literary and textual studies at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, a degree I earned after completing a Fulbright fellowship at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina. Before then, I studied Linguistics in Nigeria, my home country.
There is an abundance of expressive visual forms emerging from Africa to which cultural criticism must play catch-up. Here, I am echoing many literatures in African studies including “Of Travels, Accents, and Epistemologies” by Tejumola Olaniyan (2015). Along this charge, my doctoral research focuses on animation and comics in order to understand how contemporary art forms are informing new consciousnesses with respect to African identity, subjectivity, and agency.
I am grateful to the Olaniyan family for creating the Tejumola Olaniyan Foundation which made the Tejumola Olaniyan Travel Award possible. This award will support my trip to Nigeria in the Summer of 2022 where I will be conducting an ethnographic study in animation studios. Beyond the invaluable financial support, my work will benefit from the profound and capacious scholarship of Professor Tejumola Olaniyan whose oeuvre continues to shape the field of African cultural studies. I am also sincerely thankful to the African Studies Program for this wonderful opportunity.”
Produced by Cecilia Kyalo