By Isa Isawade
The Redeemer’s University, Ede Osun State on Thursday held its inaugural lecture series 24 delivered by the erudite professor of Gender and Humanitarianism, Oluwatoyin Olatundun Ilesanmi, Ph.D.
The lecture with theme: Vulnerability, Voice and Valour: Navigating Transformative Frontiers in Gender, Humanitarianism, and Psychosocial Wellbeing centered around three major interconnected propositions of understanding vulnerability, drawing an effective structural framework and addressing the crisis of gender blindness.
Under the first proposition, Prof. Ilesanmi avers that gender and humanitarianism must be brought into one analytical and practical frame to understand vulnerability, design just interventions, and build humane futures in Africa.
He maintains, under the second proposition that, “Gender is not peripheral; it is structural. It shapes access to education, leadership, heath, safety, voice, livelihood, and bodily autonomy. Humanitarianism is not merely emergency relief; it is a moral, political, and psychosocial framework for preserving life, restoring dignity, and rebuilding human capability in crisis.”
Her third emphasis is that “when gender blindness meets humanitarian crisis, marginalized groups suffer disproportionately. Conversely,when scholarship refuses to separate the intimate from the structural, new possibilities emerge: the clinic speaks to policy; counselling speaks to governance; gender analysis informs peace building; family therapy responds to war; universities become sites of protection rather than of reproduction of inequality.
Ilesanmi traced the beginning of her academic formation to the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) where she obtained here B.A in English Studies before proceeding to the University of Ibadan for her M.Ed. in Guidance and Counselling, and Ph.D. in Clinical and Humanitarian Psychology, Gender and Development, and Conflictology.
She is credited with over 70 publications and has edited numerous literary works.
Professor Ilesanmi has been in charge of the Centre for Gender, Humanitarian and Development Studies of the Redeemer’s University.
In attendance at the lecture were dignitaries from the academia and non-academic communities.
