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Jola Ajibade

Associate Professor • Environmental Sciences • Energy University

Environmental geographer and climate justice researcher dedicated to transformational solutions for our planet’s future.

Idowu Jola Ajibade
Idowu Jola Ajibade

Jola Ajibade

Associate Professor • Environmental Sciences • Energy University

Environmental geographer and climate justice researcher dedicated to transformational solutions for our planet’s future.

JOLA AJIBADE

Associate Professor • Environmental Sciences • Emory University

Environmental geographer and climate justice researcher dedicated to transformative solutions for our planet’s future.

I am an environmental and human geographer. I apply environmental justice and political ecology lenses to study the intersection of climate change, urban sustainability, and societal transformation. My research focuses on how individuals, communities, and cities respond to global environmental change, and their different capacities for adaptation, resilience, transformation, and long-term sustainability. Specifically, I explore the impacts of uncritical climate solutions, resilience planning, and sustainability practices on marginalized communities.

This includes examining unjust disaster risk reduction strategies, managed retreat programs, water-consolidation schemes, tree-planting, blue-green infrastructure, renewable energy, and future city planning. I interrogate when, where, how, and why some of these solutions foster uneven development, promote gentrification, and increase social inequality, thereby exacerbating vulnerability in already underserved and disadvantaged communities.

I also examine social, economic, and political contexts as well as policies, community engagements, and institutional arrangements that allow just forms of adaptation and resilience to thrive. My scholarships and engagements are at the intersections of multiple scales: communities, cities, regions, and international levels.

In my work, I emphasize incorporating feminist, decolonial, and antiracist approaches and care ethics that can lead to more just, livable, and sustainable futures. I also advocate for justice-centered transformative ideologies that allow for articulating multiple and alternative trajectories of future socio-environmental and socio-economic possibilities, i.e., human-to-human and human-to-nature assemblages. This includes exploring unconventional approaches and partnerships such as the role of grassroots coalitions, cooperatives, social entrepreneurs, and small businesses in promoting a shareable economy, sustainable lifestyle changes, low-carbon development, and socially just resilience planning in cities.

I love teaching! I combine abstract and analytical texts with case studies and current events from which students are required to identify active linkages drawn from multimedia sources and everyday experiences. Research and fieldwork are also incorporated into my courses. These combined strategies engender a learner-centered process where students are actively engaged in their own education through the utilization of skills, information, and knowledge acquired. This process also allows for building a learning community that provides students with the opportunity to grasp the importance of collaboration, communication, and knowledge production.

For evaluation, I introduce various types of tests and creative assessments such as free-writes, timed-essays, analysis of print media, documentary reviews, and photo essays, to determine improvement in knowledge and thinking skills. My approach is to always give students a constructive feedback both in and outside of the classroom. I believe that university-level teaching is a privilege and a significant responsibility, involving mentoring and supporting students as they develop skills for future employment and for life more generally.

In summary, my overall goal as a teacher is to foster a passion for learning that goes beyond the classroom and sparks a lifetime of concern and interest in the broader global community.

Editorial Appointments

2024 – Present:

Deputy Editor: Climatic Change

Leading editorial decisions for submissions related to climate justice and adaptation.

2023 – Present:

Associate Deputy Editor

Contributing to editorial direction and special issue development.

2020 – 2023:

Associate Deputy Editor, Climatic Change

Managed peer review process for submissions on urban climate adaptation.

Research Interest

Climate adaptation and urban resilience

Environmental justice and disaster geographies

Climate justice and societal transformation

Managed retreat and climate migration

Cimatopias and smart cities

Tree equity and eco-gentrification

Renewable energy and just transitions

Water justice and feminist geographies

Mixed qualitative and quantitative methods

Education

Ph.D. Geography and Environmental Sustainability (2013) Western University Canada

M.A. International Law and Human Rights, (2006) University for Peace, Costa Rica

B.A. Philosophy (2004) Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria

Professional Courses and Certifications

Certificate in Climate Change and Fragile States: Rethinking Adaptation (2011). United Nations University-Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), Germany.

Certificate in Climate Change and Its Impacts (2010), University of Brown International Advanced Research Institute, Rhode Island, USA.

Certificate in Universal and Regional Systems of Human Rights Protection (2006). Notre Dame Law School and Institute for Human Rights Research, Netherlands.

Diploma in International Cooperation and Development (2005), United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan.

Diploma in Human Rights Concepts and Issues (2005), United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan.