The Climate of Conflict: Colonial Development, Ecological Change and Displacement in the Sahel with Dr. Isaac ‘Asume’ Osuoka
When and Where
Description
Isaac ‘Asume’ Osuoka has almost three decades of engagement with communities, civil society and governments in Africa and globally while participating in the Nigerian pro-democracy movement and coordinating international civil society networks supporting communities impacted by climate change and those resisting the negative impacts of resource extraction and unfair trade regimes. He is the founder and Director of Social Action, an organisation promoting resource democracy and the human rights and livelihoods of marginalised communities in West Africa.
Asume holds a doctorate in Environmental Studies from York University, where he has been a member of the faculty and visiting scholar. As a graduate student, he received the Elia Scholarship, York’s most prestigious graduate studies award, and the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship for his research that exposes the theoretical anomalies and practical implications of applying euro-western concepts of civil society to non-western sites. Asume believes that learning should be relevant to the needs of emancipation and social transformation, which informs his popular education teaching and interdisciplinary research that intersects the state, civil society and social movements, labour, environment, and climate change, focusing on the Gulf of Guinea and the Sahel regions of Africa. Asume is currently the Resident Fellow at the Department of Global and International Studies at Carleton University.