Ezekwesili joins Yale University as senior fellow

Obiageli Ezekwesili, a former minister of education, has joined the Yale Jackson Institute for Global Affairs as a senior fellow.

According to the institute, senior fellows “teach courses, consult with students about career ambitions, enliven the conversation on campus, and conduct research emanating from their experiences”.

Aside from Ezekwesili, five other persons joining the institute as 2021-2022 Jackson Institute senior fellows are: David Brooks, author and columnist for New York Times; Staffan de Mistura, former under-secretary general of the United Nations; Jessica Faieta, resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Colombia; Anne W. Patterson, former assistant secretary for Near Eastern and North African Affairs at the Department of State, US, and Jessica Seddon, global lead for air quality at the World Resources Institute (WRI).

The senior fellows are expected to spend a year or semester at Yale, teaching postgraduate courses and mentoring students.

Ezekwesili will teach two postgraduate courses on ‘Democracy and Africa’s Political Distortions’, and ‘Resolving Africa’s Economic Philosophy Dilemma’, during the 2021 fall semester.

According to a statement by the institution, the six new fellows join “17 returning fellows, leading practitioners in various fields of international affairs, who teach classes at Yale”.