Kehinde Ilegbusi

Kehinde Ilegbusi works at the intersection of intellectual history, legal history, new international history, and digital public humanities. His research traces the global entanglements of African states and societies with the United States and the wider world across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. At the center of his dissertation is the Ogoni people of Nigeria – an Atlantic community whose experience became entangled with the ideas and visions of European oil giant Shell and the politics of colonial and post-independence Nigeria. This dissertation will straddle the field of West Africa, empire, law, science, technology, militarism, environmental, public, cultural, and memory studies. Alongside his dissertation, he works as a Doctoral Research Assistant on two related projects: Reckoning, with Professor Uta Poiger, and Donated Body/Dignity for Disappeared Ancestors, with Professors Kris Manjapra and Margaret Burnham. His work builds on expertise in history, law, ethics, and community-driven storytelling, and he is grateful for the genuine gifts of those who have become ancestors, for every adviser whose mentorship continues to shape his path, and for the colleagues who have created space for collaboration. Outside of his research, he belongs to Stories of Home (SOH), a Lagos-based nonprofit that uses storytelling, hope traditions, and community learning to plant seeds of healing and possibility across Africa. As a Hope Ambassador, he carries that same conviction into everything he does: that hope, honestly pursued and generously shared, can make our world better.  He is from southwestern Nigeria, and graduated with first-class honors in History and Strategic Studies from the University of Lagos in 2021, and completed his Master’s degree in World History, graduate certificate in Digital Humanities, and another in Public History at Northeastern University in 2025 and 2026.