Emmanuel Osayande is a Ph.D. Candidate in History and African and African American Studies. His research interests include international law, human and civil rights, business and human rights, legal history, urban governance, modern African history, and Nigeria. His current research centers on the intersections between human rights and governance in urban Southern Nigeria during the twentieth century. The study investigates how state and non-state actors pushed for and negotiated power and social change within cities, whilst forging and consolidating distinct political identities predicated on ethnic, class, and racial lines.

Osayande holds an MA in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a BA in History and Strategic Studies (First Class Honors), with a concentration in international relations, from the University of Lagos. He has taught courses on world history, Cold War history, international relations and diplomacy, and African history. His publications have appeared in journals such as the African Research Review and the Canadian Journal of African Studies/Revue canadienne des études africaines.

Osayande is a research fellow at the Nigeria Office of the French Institute for Research in Africa. He is also founder of Woke, a nonprofit that intellectually empowers underserved young Africans.