24-year-old Tosin Durodola named runner-up in Oxford University’s border thesis prize

Tosin Durodola, a 24-year-old scholar from the University of Ibadan, has emerged as runner-up of the 5th Border Criminologies Dissertation Prize.

Mary Bosworth, director of the Centre for Criminology and Border Criminologies, University of Oxford, made this known in a newsletter on Thursday.

The award, which attracts £200 and £100 worth of Routledge books, was put together by Routledge and Oxford University’s Centre for Criminology and Border Criminologies. 

It aims to support early career researchers working on citizenship, migration and the intersections between border controls and criminal justice.

Durodola’s award-winning thesis is titled: ‘Narratives of the Journey to Exile and Transformative Agency of Residual Liberian Refugees in Oru, Southwestern Nigeria‘.

Tiphaine Le Corre from the University of Oxford won first place with the thesis titled: ‘The Politics of Deterring Unwanted Immigration to the United Kingdom’.

According to the statement, Durodola and Tiphaine beat a strong shortlist of 10 others from universities in Europe, Asia and other African countries to emerge winners. 

The competition was judged by a panel of academics who assessed the dissertation in terms of quality and originality, and its contribution to the body of knowledge about border control and migration.

Durodola set a new record by becoming the first African and postgraduate student from a university in the Global South to make the top two places since the inception of the competition. 

The young scholar, who recently obtained a masters in African Studies with a CGPA of 6.7/7.0, was in August appointed special assistant on digital communications to Kayode Fayemi, governor of Ekiti.