Honoring Bayo Akomolafe at CIIS' 55th Commencement Ceremony

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Bayo Akomolafe, celebrated philosopher, author, activist, professor, and founder of The Emergence Network, will receive an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy and will deliver the Commencement Address at California Institute of Integral Studies’ 55th Commencement Ceremony on Sunday, May 14th at the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco.

Born to Yoruba parents in western Nigeria, Dr. Akomolafe is recognized for his poetic, unconventional, and counterintuitive take on global crisis, civic action and social change. Bayo challenges us to lean into the “political un-project” that is fugitivity – blurring societally imposed binaries – in order to better understand the human territory and to make more-than-human sanctuary through post-activism.

We need trickster approaches, we need ways of dancing away, or dancing to, fugitive spaces; dancing to sanctuaries where we can shape-shift. Grieving, mourning, even allowing ourselves to partake in pleasurable activities in the face of the storm. 

-Dr. Bayo Akomolafe  
 

As a visionary founder of the Emergence Network, Dr. Akomolafe curates an earth-wide project for the re-calibration of our ability to respond to civilizational crisis – a project framed within a material feminist/posthumanist/postactivist ethos and inspired by Yoruba indigenous cosmologies. He considers this a shared art – exploring the edges of the intelligible, dancing with posthumanist ideas, dabbling in the mysteries of quantum mechanics and the liberating sermon of an ecofeminism text; and he has created a life devoted to exploring the nuances of a “magical” world “too promiscuous to fit neatly into our fondest notions of it.”

He is the widely acclaimed author of two books, These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity's Search for Home (North Atlantic Books) and We Will Tell our Own Story: The Lions of Africa Speak (Universal Write Publications LLC).

Dr. Akomolafe received his B.Sc. in Psychology followed by an M.Sc. in Clinical Psychology and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology all from Covenant University in Nigeria. He has served as a visiting professor at numerous universities in the United States, Canada, and Europe. In addition to his work with the Emergence Network, Dr. Akomolafe sits on the boards of many organizations including Science and Non-Duality, Unashay Sanctuary, and more. Dr. Akomolafe received the 2021 New Thought Walden Award, presented annually to honor those who use empowering spiritual ideas and philosophies to change lives and make our planet a better place.

We are blessed to have Dr. Bayo Akomolafe on this very special occasion and we give gratitude to his partner Ijeoma ‘Ej’ Clement-Akomolafe and his children who are based in Chennai, India for supporting him on this journey.

Learn more about CIIS' 55th Commencement Ceremony and Reception.