Dr. Obasesam Okoi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Justice and Society Studies at the University of St. Thomas, where he teaches Intro to Justice and Peace Studies and Public Policy Analysis and Advocacy. His research interests include natural resource conflict and conflict resolution processes, post-conflict peacebuilding programs and policies, the intersection of engineering and peace, and the linkages between technology, inequality, and mobility. He also examines the alleviation of inequities that are emerging in Africa as a result of globalization, digitalization, and artificial intelligence as well as global pandemics. He has published in peer-reviewed journals such as Conflict Resolution Quarterly, African Security, World Development, International Journal on World Peace, Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice, and in prominent global policy think tanks. He is currently working on a book project: “Punctuated Peace in Nigeria’s Oil Region.”
Dr. Okoi awakened his passion for social justice while working as an engineer in the oil industry in Nigeria, where he experienced the negative impact of oil extraction on the environment and local communities. He has engaged hundreds of former insurgents in Nigeria's oil region to assess the successes and failures of post-conflict peacebuilding interventions in local communities. He also convenes leadership summits in Nigeria to inspire critical consciousness.
Prior to joining the faculty at St. Thomas, Dr. Okoi taught at the University of Winnipeg, and Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada, where he directed undergraduate courses in human rights and international development. He received a doctorate in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Manitoba, Canada, where he was also the coordinator of the Africa Working Group Consortium. This initiative united scholars, students, and practitioners to explore peace and conflict issues on the African continent. Dr. Okoi has contributed to a global policy response to address the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on vulnerable groups through the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania.
Okoi, O. & Bwawa, T. (2020) How Health Inequality Affect Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa. World Development, 135 (105067). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X20301935
Okoi, O. (2019). Peacebuilding and Transformational Change in Nigeria's Oil Region. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 19 (1), 1-16. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/crq.21270
Okoi, O. (2019). The Paradox of Nigeria's Oil Dependency. Africa Portal, January 21, 2019. https://www.africaportal.org/features/paradox-nigerias-oil-dependency/
Okoi, O. (2016). Why Nations Fight: The Causes of The Nigeria–Cameroon Bakassi Peninsula Conflict. African security, 9 (1), 42-65. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19392206.2016.1132904
Okoi, O. (2016). Limits of International Law: Settlement of the Nigeria-Cameroon Territorial Conflict. International Journal on World Peace, 33 (2), 77-102