Olupemi Oludare is an Assistant Professor of Black History in the department of History, University of Amsterdam.

Before joining UvA, I held a postdoctoral fellowship in the Faculty of Humanities at Utrecht University from 2020 – 2022, where I contributed to the NWO-funded project "When Language has a Beat," an interdisciplinary study delving into the linguistic culture of West Africa. Prior to my time at Utrecht, I was a lecturer in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Lagos in Nigeria and served on the faculty board of studies and examinations. I also held the Catalyst non-residential fellowship at the University of Edinburgh.

At UvA, my research focuses on modern Black history with the aim to (re)interrogate arts and culture as oral, embodied, and material sources of history, heritage, and identity. My current research explores the historical and political economy underpinnings of the ongoing discourse on decoloniality, transnationalism, and Afrofuturism within the Black (African and diasporic) communities. This research draws from a critical humanities perspective, aiming to decolonize institutions and knowledge structures by incorporating epistemologies from the Global South. With specialization in ethnomusicology and African studies, my work further examines and contributes to the role of music, language, and culture in human and social development.

Teaching

• Africa in Modern World History: Cultures, Legacies, and Developments
• Concepts in History - Cultural Transfers Around the Atlantic, c. 1800 to the Present
• American studies - Usable Pasts: Music as Cultural Memory: (Re)Sounding African American Heritage
• Bachelor's thesis working group - Popular Culture, Transnationality, and Social Transformation in Global History
• Confronting the Anthropocene: Environmentalism in the 20th Century [co-teaching]
• Introduction to cultural musicology: Unlearning music, learning musics [part-teaching]
• History Lab II - Keeping the past alive accurately: Performing history through oral sources
• Research seminar

I love to disseminate my academic research to a wider public through community outreaches as a way of engaging in open science within the society. Through the organisation of symposia, participation in public workshops, and partnerships with cultural organisations, I contribute to research valorisation and facilitate a collaborative ecosystem between the ‘town and gown’ wherein the academic and cultural institutions and members of the society converge. In 2023 I organized a symposium titled ”Decoloniality-transnationalism-and-afrofuturism-the-dialogue”, with a subsidie from the Dutch Slavery Memorial Year program (Fonds voor Cultuurparticiptie) and in partnership with the Decolonial Dialogues@Humanities UvA and Isokan Concepts. See the seminar on YouTube here. I also organized an event titled "The Black Heritage" equally funded by the Fonds voor Cultuurparticiptie and in partnership with De Voorkamer and Isokan Concepts.

As a cultural practitioner and performing artist, I participate in public activities and collaborations with communities of people with diverse cultural backgrounds. My musical and cultural pursuits promote intercultural communication and are deeply rooted in African philosophies such as Ubuntu and Omolúàbí, as well as indigenous knowledge systems. These include:

• Mami Wata philosophy and oral history in West Africa and the African diaspora. Read more
• Music and Poetry (Trills & Chills) – Read My World Literature Festival at Tuinhuis, Amsterdam. Read more
• Arts and Culture as medium of celebration, resistance, and transformation - Black Heritage Special at De Voorkamer, Lombok, Utrecht.
• Music and Intercultural exchange - Community Outreach at AZC, Utrecht.

For more information into my cultural activities, please follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isokan.concepts/