Tolu Ogunlesi selected for Harvard’s Weatherhead fellowship

Tolu Ogunlesi, special assistant on digital/new media to President Muhammadu Buhari, has been selected as a 2022 fellow of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA) at Harvard University in the US.

Ogunlesi, a journalist, is among the 22 fellows who will spend up to one academic year at Harvard to “confront complex international, transnational, global and comparative issues”.

During the fellowship, the writer’s research will “focus on social media regulation, and digitally-mediated disinformation and misinformation”.

According to a statement by the US-based institution, the scholars hail from 14 countries and will research diverse fields such as political science, history, sociology, engineering, cultural diplomacy, urban design, and international relations.

“The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA) is pleased to announce the 2022–2023 scholars and fellows of the Weatherhead Scholars Program,” the statement reads.

“The twenty-two members of the 2022–2023 Weatherhead Scholars Program (WSP) cohort hail from fourteen different countries and consist of six postdoctoral fellows, nine visiting scholars, and seven practitioner fellows; additionally this year there will be one WSP Summer Associate. Fields represented include political science, history, sociology, engineering, cultural diplomacy, urban design, and international relations.

“Weatherhead Center for International Affairs is the largest international social science research center within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. During their time in residence, scholars and fellows contribute to the many intellectual activities of the Weatherhead Center and the broader Harvard community, participating in seminars and workshops, auditing courses, and engaging with undergraduate research assistants.”

In 2004, Ogunlesi graduated from the University of Ibadan with a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy. He later bagged a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of East Angia, UK.

He won the CNN Multichoice African Journalist Awards twice in 2009 and 2013. In 2009, he was selected as a Cadbury visiting fellow by the University of Birmingham.