Tobi Idowu

About

Tobi Idowu is a scholar of global Black literatures and popular cultures. He is a PhD candidate in African Cultural Studies, with a doctoral minor in English, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research brings literary studies into conversation with music, media, and digital culture to examine how Africans and their diasporas make community, publics, and meaning through cultural production. Working across African fiction, Afrobeats and global Black music, and digital media, he combines close reading of literary and musical texts with archival and ethnographic methods.

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Research Interests

• Global Black Literatures
• African Literature
• Popular Music and Afrobeats
• Media and Digital Cultures
• African Diaspora Studies
• Public Humanities

Selected Publications

• Idowu, Tobi. Review of The Algorithmic Age of Personality: African Literature and Cancel Culture, by James Yékú. African Studies Review (2026): 1–2. [Article]
• Idowu, Tobi. Review of Sọ̀rọ̀sókè: An #EndSARS Anthology, edited by Jumoke Verissimo and James Yékú. Democracy & Development: Journal of West African Affairs 5, no. 3 (2021): 31–32. [PDF]

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Public Humanities