Ifá University
Advisory Council
Distinguished scholars and practitioners whose expertise in Yorùbá culture, African religions, and the arts guides the academic mission of Ifá University.
Prof. Kọ́lá Abímbọ́lá
President, Ifá University · Full Professor of Philosophy, Howard University · Babaláwo
Dual doctorates in Philosophy of Science (LSE) and Law of Evidence & Criminal Justice (Birmingham), plus an LLB (LSE). Ordained Ifá priest by the Ògẹ̀ẹ̀sẹ̀ conclave of diviners of the Aláàfin of Ọ̀yọ́. Scholar of Yorùbá philosophy, Wigmorean analysis, and forensic science.
Author: Yorùbá Culture: A Philosophical Account
Prof. Rowland Abíọ́dún
John C. Newton Professor of Art, Art History & Black Studies, Amherst College
Nigerian-American scholar whose pioneering work examines Yorùbá art through indigenous language, aesthetics, and the concepts of oríkì and àṣẹ. His research has transformed the field of African art studies by centering Yorùbá intellectual and critical traditions.
Author: Yoruba Art and Language: Seeking the African in African Art (Cambridge, 2014)
Prof. Diedre L. Badejo
Professor of African World Literatures & Cultural History · Fulbright Senior Scholar
Specialist in African oral and written literatures, Yorùbá women’s traditions, and West African historiography. Her immersive fieldwork at the Ọ̀ṣun shrine in Òṣogbo produced the first full-length study of a major Yorùbá goddess. Former Dean, College of Letters, Arts & Social Sciences, CSU East Bay.
Author: Ọ̀ṣun Ṣẹ̀ẹ̀gẹ̀sí: The Elegant Deity of Wealth, Power, and Femininity (1996)
Prof. Tracey E. Hucks
Victor S. Thomas Professor of Africana Religious Studies, Harvard Divinity School · Suzanne Young Murray Professor, Radcliffe Institute
Nationally recognized scholar of Africana Studies and American religious history. Former Provost and Dean of the Faculty at Colgate University. Resident graduate scholar at Ọbáfẹ́mi Awólọ́wọ̀ University. Research conducted across Brazil, Cuba, Nigeria, Trinidad, Jamaica, Kenya, and Tanzania.
Author: Yoruba Traditions and African American Religious Nationalism (2012)
Prof. Jacob K. Olúpọ̀nà
Professor of African Religious Traditions, Harvard Divinity School & African and African American Studies, Harvard FAS
Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of the Nigerian National Order of Merit. His research spans indigenous African religions, Yorùbá festivals, spirit possession, and religious pluralism. Founder of the Ifè Institute of Advanced Studies. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2023).
Author: City of 201 Gods: Ilé-Ifè in Time, Space, and the Imagination (UC Press, 2011)
Prof. Dianne M. Stewart
Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Religion & African American Studies, Emory University
Scholar of African-heritage religious cultures in the Caribbean and the Americas. MDiv from Harvard Divinity School, PhD in systematic theology from Union Theological Seminary. 2025 Guggenheim Fellow. Co-editor of the Duke University Press series on Religious Cultures of African and African Diaspora People.
Author: Three Eyes for the Journey: African Dimensions of the Jamaican Religious Experience (Oxford, 2005)