Ololade Faniyi
Writer-Practitioner, Editor & PhD Candidate, Emory University
- African Feminism
- Critical Technology Studies
- Feminist Digital Cultures
About
Full BioOlolade Faniyi is an African feminist writer-practitioner, editor and Ph.D. candidate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Emory University. Her research is situated at the intersection of African feminism and critical technology studies, with a focus on alchemy-wise African women who reimagine techno-modernity’s completed forms across artificial intelligence, data work, platforms, and policy in service of the postcolony and decentered communities. Her work also explores Nigerian feminist digital cultures within political movements like #EndSARS and amidst encounters with the state, defensive publics, and algorithmic platforms.
2026 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellow
For Ololade's collaborative multi-country ethnographic study with/on women former data workers, community tech builders, and tech policy activists and lawyers.
- Kenya
- Nigeria
- South Africa
- Zambia
Latest forum article
“A Killjoy Witness: African Content Moderators and AI’s Relationalities of Extraction”
Pushes against the “exceptional other” narratives surrounding African AI workers within a global logic of Big Tech’s racial capitalist profiteering, and adopts Ama Ata Aidoo’s killjoy ethos to refuse the comfort of technologies built on harm and the invisibilization of Africans.
Read the articleResearch
Selected publications
A Herstory of #EndSARS: Nuances of Intersectionality in Nigeria’s Movement Against Police Brutality
Bowling Green State University Graduate College Distinguished Thesis Award
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The End SARS Women’s Coalition: Exploring the Persistence of Women’s Movements through Feminist Generations
Feminist Africa, 5(1), 125–151
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Get the hammer out! Breaking computational tools for feminist, intersectional “small data” research
Journal of Digital Social Research, 6(2) (with Gajjala R. et al.)
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Young Feminists Redefining Principles of Care in Nigeria
WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly 50(1), 49–67 (with Omotoso S.)
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#SayHerNameNigeria: Nigerian Feminists Resist Police Sexual Violence on Women’s Bodies
In B. Wiens et al. (Eds.), Stories of Feminist Protest and Resistance (with Nduka-Nwosu A. & Gajjala R.)
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Public-facing & community work
More words in The Republic
PoliticsForHer Africa
AI, Deepfakes and Synthetic Violence
Open
The Republic
Reimagining Feminist Digital Worlds with Ann Daramola
Open
The Republic
An African Feminist Manifesto
Written by Ololade Faniyi. Feb 27, 2024.
Open
Women’s Studies in Communication
A Killjoy Witness: African Content Moderators and AI’s Relationalities of Extraction
Conversation and Commentary. 2026, Vol. 49, No. 1, 189–192.
Open
EthicsLab Webinar
From Theory to Practice, Practice to Theory: African Feminist Reimaginings of AI and Data Governance
13 November 2025, 15:00 to 16:00 SAST. Irene Mwendwa, Kenyan lawyer and tech policy advocate, and Ololade Faniyi, African feminist scholar.
Open
Liberation Alliance Africa
We Speak of New Things
Session theme: Digital Colonialism and Afro-Feminist Futures. Wednesday, 27th November 2024. Ololade Faniyi, Moderator. Dr. Wunpini Mohammed and Irene Mwendwa, Speakers.
Open
Able Idealisms
Liberation + AI Think Tank
Corporate AI is built by exploited laborers.
Open
MozFest Kenya
African Feminism in Big Social Data
Through the lens of the #womensmarchZambia movement, this session explored the repercussions of untruths and biased narratives, underscoring the need for a feminist reimagination of AI.
Open
Long House
A Long Talk: Ukamaka Olisakwe and Ololade Faniyi
Long Talk: Conversations across intimate diasporas.
Open
African Feminist Digital Encounters: Freedom Dreaming in the Digital Age
Open
Press comments
BBC Focus on Africa
On rising femicide across Africa and gaps in data and justice, with Audrey Brown and Felix Kiprono.
New Lines Magazine
On Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti’s legacy and generational links in Nigerian feminist movements.
OkayAfrica
On the policing of queer and trans bodies in Nigeria
Pulse Nigeria
On Digital Catfishing and Toxic Empathy in Nigerian Male Skitmakers' Cosplay
Contact
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