New Faculty: Oumar Ba

Oumar Ba

Assistant Professor, Department of Government

Academic focus:
International Relations, law and violence, humanity and world order

Current research project: 
I’m currently working on a project titled Global Justice and the Racialized Hierarchy of ‘Humanness’, that argues that the international criminal justice project rests on the colonial and imperial foundations of international law, which reproduces raced and racialized hierarchies of “humanness.” Another project seeks to (re)center the ontological grounding of decolonization not only as a political process, but as praxis grounded in theories humanism and the universal. To do so, the essay foregrounds the archives of liberation, as articulated by African voices at the forefront of the decolonization struggle.

Previous positions: 

• Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Morehouse College, 2017-2021

Academic background: 

• Ph.D., Political science, University of Florida, 2017
• M.A., Political science, University of Florida, 2014
• M.A., Political science, Ohio University, 2011
• M.A., International affairs, Ohio University, 2011
• B.A., International studies, Ohio State University, 2009
• B.A., Geography, Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegal, 1999

Last book read:
“Le fagot de ma mémoire” by Souleymane Bachir Diagne

In your own time/when not working:
I enjoy running, drinking coffee and reading novels, and watching football (the real one).

Courses you’re most looking forward to teaching:
Race and World Politics; Decolonization; Cities as Archives, Memory as (International) Law;  International Justice in Question(s)

What most excites you about Cornell:
I’m excited to be a member of such a vibrant community and looking forward to interdisciplinary collaborations.

Twitter handle/blog URL:
@oumarkba