Dami is a passionate justice-centred storyteller, women’s rights advocate and higher education researcher.

Thank you for visiting my website! Here you read about who I am, contact me with event and collaboration enquiries and listen to my poems.

I am a Christian Black British woman sociologist of education, poet, all-round creative and wearer of many hats. I am a final year PhD student researching the experiences of Black women at Oxbridge. My research uses Critical Poetic Inquiry, employing poetry as an evocative tool through which I disseminate knowledge and highlight the importance of my research foci. 

Storytelling is an art that I utilise in a variety of ways. In my poetry and performances, I employ the art of storytelling to take my readers on an emotional and evocative intellectual journey. Whether through my poetry or sociological research, I take a justice-centred approach to my work.

In addition to my poetic and academic work, I love making good organisations great by helping them achieve their goals efficiently. I am honoured to support my PhD sponsor Niyo Group to do this in my capacity as acting Chief Sustainability Officer.

I am currently undertaking a PhD in Education at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Dr Tyler Denmead. I am undertaking PhD through the sponsorship of Niyo Group.

I have also worked as a Research Assistant on the Close the Gap Project. Currently, I work as a Research Assistant under Dr Dita N. Love and Dr Grace Idahosa on separate projects that explore Black British poetics and coloniality and sustainability in Higher Education.

PhD in Education

MSc in International Social Change and Policy

I hold an MSc in International Social Change and Policy (with Merit) from the University of Sheffield. My dissertation explored Coloniality and Social Policy: A Comparative Analysis of UK and Nigerian Human Trafficking Policy.

BSc in Sociology and Education Studies

I have a BSc in Sociology and Education Studies (Upper Second Class). My dissertation focused on Higher Education and Social Class, exploring how class backgrounds influenced experiences of Higher Education. My dissertation achieved First Class grade.

Publications

  • Folayan, D. (2024). From Colonial Legacies to Decolonial Futures: Explorations of Coloniality Through Oxbridge and Lagdan in Bagga-Gupta, S. (Ed) Palgrave Handbook for Decolonising Education and Language Sciences. Palgrave Macmillan. [forthcoming]

    Abstract: This chapter employs poetry and storying to outline the legacies of colonialism evident in elite higher education institutions (HEIs). Situated across the UK and Nigeria, this chapter engages in a comparative institutional analysis of four universities to detail manifestations of the colonial matrix of knowledge formation across the territories of the global North and South. I outline how elite HEIs are historic tools of colonial logic that purport and preserve colonial ideals. I illustrate a break from colonial requirements for knowledge formation through form and content. I utilise creative-arts-based academic practices to demonstrate how thinkers can counter coloniality’s one-dimensional sense of knowledge formation. Highlighting the importance of doing decoloniality I explore why decolonial efforts and projects cannot fit neatly into the frame of academic rigour if they seek to truly achieve their aims.

  • Folayan, D. and Amofah-Akardom, T.(2024). Racisms and the Ivory Tower: the disenchantment of the racially minoritised within UK HE — a systematic literature review. [Manuscript in preparation].

    Abstract: We engage in an integrative systematic literature review of current literature on various racisms at play within UK Higher Education institutions (HEIs). We explore how racisms are discussed, defined and combatted within UK HEIs, outlining the disenchantment of the racially minoritised. We analyse a total of 92 articles identified during our review process. Our findings highlight how racisms are perpetuated through racialised language and institutional and individual complicity in the creation and continuation of racial violence with HE. We recommend that further research be conducted into the racisms evident in UK HEIs to improve the clarity with which the topic is discussed and understood. Our recommendations call for a more nuanced approach to discussions of racisms in HEIs and a decolonial approach to research as a way to promote anti-racism.

  • Amofah-Akardom, T. and Folayan, D. (2022). Student blog post: Symposium July 2022, Close the Gap. Available at: https://www.closethegap.ox.ac.uk/article/symposium-1.

    Commissioned blog post exploring themes that arose during the Close the Gap research symposium which took place at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford in July 2022.

  • Williams. A., Mayblin L., Birdi B., Carnegie E., Fields D., Gadhia M., Igali F., Kiyumbu W., Ladipo D., Mills C., Pinney M., and Stampnitzky L. (2019). Decolonising the Curriculum in the Faculty of Social Sciences: A report completed by a working group of the Faculty of Social Sciences Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee of The University of Sheffield. University of Sheffield Faculty of Social Sciences.

    An internal report for staff and students exploring the best practices and processes involved in decolonising the curriculum within the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Talks and Teaching

I have an extensive range of teaching a public speaking experience. Some examples of which are listed below:

Workshop facilitation: Interwoven Legacies: HEIs and Coloniality, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield

Guest lecture: Black Britishness in UK HE, Faculty of Education, University of Leeds

Symposium speaker: Performing Black Womanhood, Trinity College, University of Cambridge

Conference presentation: Kaleidoscope 2023, Homerton College, University of Cambridge

Symposium Speaker: Close the Gap, St Anne's College, University of Oxford

I am open to invitations for workshop facilitation, guest lectures, poetry performances and keynote speeches. My availability is limited but get in touch and I do my best to accommodate your needs.

Awards and Recognitions

  • Dami was awarded the 2023 communication prize by Girton College, University of Cambridge in recognition of her outstanding public speaking track record.

  • Dami is a 2023/24 Innovate UK Awardee. This has enabled her to pioneer her unique plant-based hair extension innovation in a project embedded in her PhD sponsor company Niyo Group.

Stay up to date with Dami's work.

Stay up to date with Dami's work.

My life is a miscellany of redemptive tales.