Professor Dr. Bimbola Akinbola

Assistant Professor

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Biography

Bimbola Akinbola is a Chicago-based artist and scholar working at the intersection of African diaspora studies, performance, visual culture, and postcolonial theory. Her scholarly work addresses themes of kinship, belonging, gender performance, and affect within the African diaspora. Dr. Akinbola is currently developing a book manuscript that examines the concept of disbelonging in the diasporic homemaking of contemporary Nigerian diasporic women artists. Her essays have been published in Text Performance Quarterly and Women Studies Quarterly. In addition to her scholarly pursuits, she is a practicing visual performance artist whose work has been exhibited at venues such as the Center on Halsted, Riverside Arts Center, Compound Yellow, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. She received her PhD in American Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2018, and was a Black Performing Arts Post-Doctoral Fellow at Northwestern University from 2018 to 2020.

Research Interests

Performance Studies Visual Culture Postcolonial Theory African Diaspora Studies Black Studies Gender Performance Feminist Theory Queer Theory

Courses

Modes of Performance Art, Literature and Performance of Women of Color Migration, Exile, Return in African and African Diasporic Art, Performance, Literature Black Feminist Performance Family Stories, Memoirs and Diaries Queer/African/Bodies

Requirements for Northwestern University

Doctorate Program

Requirements

GPA Requirement
Required:3
TOEFL
Total
Required:90
IELTS
Overall
Required:7

Prerequisites

U.S. Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Application Checklist

  • Online application
  • Transcripts
  • Letters of recommendation
  • Statement of purpose
  • Resume/CV
  • TOEFL/IELTS scores (if applicable)

Specialization Notes

Standard PhD requirements for TGS departments including Chemistry, Physics, and Sociology.