Post-Doctoral Fellow and Administrator; Association of Human Rights Institutes (AHRI)

B.Sc (Hons) Political Science, University of Lagos; B.SocSci (Hons) Philosophy, Politics and Economics, University of Cape Town; MA Political Science, University of Pretoria; Ph.D. Political Science, University of Pretoria

Biography

Dr. Zainab Monisola Olaitan is a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Litigation and Implementation unit at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria. She is also the administrator of the Association of Human Rights Institutes (AHRI) Secretariat hosted at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria. Zainab recently completed her PhD degree in Political Science looking at the impact of gender quotas on the substantive representation of women in African politics. Her doctoral thesis interrogated the assumption that women’s increased participation in politics improves the life of women substantively. She obtained her first degree in Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Political Science with First class from the University of Lagos. Zainab completed her second degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics Honors at the University of Cape Town as a 2018 Mandela Rhodes Scholar. In 2019, she was selected for the Mastercard foundation scholarship to study for a Masters in Political Science at the University of Pretoria. Her master’s dissertation was on women’s participation in peacebuilding in West Africa, using Sierra Leone as a case study. In 2022, she was awarded the Margaret McNamara Education Grant for her impactful research work on women and children. Zainab is an avid researcher with published articles in journals, book projects, policy briefs across different themes on political thought, gender and representation, conflict and peace studies, African politics and African Indigenous Knowledge System (AIKS).

Publications

Olaitan, Z.M. 2023. Gender Participation and Agricultural Development Projects in Nigeria. African Journal of Gender, Society and Development, 12 (3): 31-51.  

 Olaitan, Z.M. 2023. Feminist Rethinking of the Representation of African Women in Peacebuilding: A Theoretical Analysis. African Journal of Gender, Society and Development, 12 (1): 185-207. https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.31920/2634-3622/2023/v12n1a9

 Olaitan, Z.M. 2022. A Modern History of Statelessness and the Socio-Political Question. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 36(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2023.2159703

Olaitan, Z.M. 2022. Enlightenment Ideas and Colonialism. In Africa’s Radicalisms and Conservatisms edited by E. Etieyibo, Vol (2) Brill Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004523586_019

Isike, E., Olaitan, Z.M., and Isike C.A. 2022. Cyberspace Xenophobia in South Africa. In Conflict and Concord edited by C. Isike and E. Isike, Palgrave Macmillan, 85-108. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1033-3_5

Olaitan, Z.M. 2022. Review of Secular Power Europe and Islam by Sarah Wolff. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 34 (6). https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2022.2035090

Olaitan, Z.M., & Isike, C.A. 2019. The Role of the African Union in Fostering Women’s Representation in Formal Peacebuilding; A case study of Sierra Leone. Journal of African Union Studies, 8(2). https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-18309d845d