Esther Oluwashina Ajayi-Lowo, Ph.D.
e.ajayi-lowo@tcu.edu817-257-1767Sadler 313L (map link)
Program Affiliations
Biography
Esther Oluwashina Ajayi-Lowo, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Women and Gender Studies at Texas Christian University. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Multicultural Women’s and Gender Studies from Texas Woman’s University, where she taught several women’s studies courses. Before becoming a university professor, she worked for over a decade on gender, human rights, health, and development issues with non-governmental and governmental organizations, including the U.S. Foreign Mission in Nigeria. Ajayi-Lowo has also worked as an assistant professor of Comparative Women’s Studies at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, where she coordinated the women’s health concentration and taught Introduction to Women’s Studies, Gender and Health in Cross-cultural Perspectives, and Women’s Health Disparities. Her overall scholar-activist-teacher passion lies at the intersection of gender, race, healthcare, and social justice. Ajayi-Lowo’s research interests include Black Maternal Health, Childbirth Epistemologies, Global Reproductive Justice, African Feminisms, Transnational Feminism, and Decolonial Pedagogies. She has published on sexuality, birth justice, reproductive health, and feminist pedagogy more broadly. Prestigious funders, including the Mellon-funded Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the American Association of University Women (AAUW), and the Philanthropic Educational Organization (P.E.O) have supported her research. Ajayi-Lowo is working on a book manuscript, Decolonizing Childbirth: Mothers, Midwives, and Modernity in Southwest Nigeria, an ethnographic exploration of the contemporary African Indigenous birthing epistemologies and approaches.
Education:
- Ph.D., Multicultural Women and Gender Studies, Texas Woman’s University, USA
- M.A., Multicultural Women and Gender Studies, Texas Woman’s University, USA
- MILD, International Law and Diplomacy, University of Lagos, Nigeria
- B.A., Philosophy (First Class Honors), Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria
Courses Taught:
- Feminist Queer Inquiry, Fall 2024
- WGST Internship, Fall 2024
- Transnational WGST, Spring 2025
- Introduction to Women and Gender Studies, Spring 2025
Areas of Focus:
- Race, Gender, and Health
- Indigenous Birthing Epistemologies
- Global Sexual and Reproductive Justice
- African Feminisms
- Transnational Feminism
- Decolonial Pedagogies
- “Decolonial Pedagogy: Resisting through Transnational WGS Introductory Courses.” DecolonialFeminist Genealogies and Futures, Edited by Annie Isabel Fukushima and K. Melchor Quick Hall, 2024, 231-265.
- “Safe Motherhood Initiative: Whither African Indigenous Birthing Knowledge?” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, Vol. 23, No. 1, Indigenous Feminism across the World, 2024, pp. 263-294.
- “Natural Birth Movement.” Women’s Health: Understanding Issues and Influences. Jillian M. Duquaine-Watson (Ed.), Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2022, pp. 466-488.
- “Sex Education.” Women’s Health: Understanding Issues and Influences. Jillian M. Duquaine-Watson (Ed.), Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2022, pp. 592-595.
- “The Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act in Nigeria: A Critique of Body Policing.” The Politics of Gender, edited by Adrienne Trier-Bieniek, Brill Sense, 2018, pp. 71-92
- “Women’s Rights: A Necessity for Economic Development.” African Policy Watch: Centre for African Affairs and Global Peace, Issue No 7, January to March 2011, pp. 1-9.
- “Sexuality Education: A Reproductive Health Right.” Under the BAOBAB Tree, BAOBAB for Women’s Rights, Vol 7, 2008, pp.15-16.
- “Reproductive Conundrum: Emerging Conversations on IVF, Surrogacy, and Baby Factories in Nigeria,” Lagos Studies Association (LSA), June 2024.
- “Traditional Surrogacy: A Reflection on an African Concept of Shared Motherhood,” International Association of Maternal Action and Scholarship (IAMAS), Boston, MA, June 2024.
- “Deconstructing Problematic Images of Africa through Pedagogical Interventions,” African Studies Association (ASA), San Francisco, CA, November/December 2023.
- “Seeking Transnational Reproductive Justice: A Comparative Analysis of Reproductive Oppression in Nigeria and the US,” National Women’s Studies Conference (NWSA) Baltimore, MD, October 2023.
- “Contemporary Traditional Midwifery in Nigeria: Gendered and Decolonized Perspectives,” Lagos Studies Association (LSA), June 2023.
- “COVID-19 and Childbirth in Africa: Re-Imagining the Survival of a Continent,” African Studies Association (ASA) Annual Conference, November 2021.
- “Feminist and African Indigenous Methodologies: A Reflection on Conducting Qualitative Interviews in Participants’ Native Language,” International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (ICQI), May 2021.
- “Strategies for Teaching Black Women’s Health across Borders and Disciplines,” Black Feminist Health Science Studies (BFHSS) conference, May 16, 2021.
- “FGM Ban in Nigeria: Drawing Lessons for Feminist Theory and Praxis on African Women.” National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA), Baltimore, MD. November 2017.
- “Sexuality Education for Reproductive Justice,” Take Root Conference, Norman, OK, February 2017.
- Mellon Foundation/Social Science Research Council (SSRC), International Dissertation Research Fellowship, 2020-2021.
- American Association of University Women (AAUW), International Fellowship, 2020-2021
- National Science Foundation (NSF) Sociology-Program, Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Awards (Soc-DDRI), *recommended for funding by the Sociology Advisory Panel*, 2020.
- Philanthropic Education Organization (P.E.O), International Peace Scholarship, 2018-2019 & 2017-2018.
- National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA), Women of Color Leadership Project Award, 2018
- Mellon Foundation/Democratizing Knowledge Institute Fellowship, 2018.
- University of Ghent, Belgium, International Interdisciplinary Course on Children’s Rights Fellowship, 2006.
- United Nations University (UNU), Tokyo, Japan- International Courses Fellowship, 2006.
- Obafemi Awolowo University, Student with the Best Overall Result in the Faculty of Arts, 2004
- Obafemi Awolowo University, Student with the Best Overall Performance in B.A. Philosophy, 2004.
- Obafemi Awolowo University, Student with the Best Results in Part III African Philosophy Exams, 2004.
- National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA)
- African Studies Association (ASA)
- Lagos Studies Association (LSA)
- African Feminist Initiative (AFI)
Last Updated: November 19, 2024