Emmanuel Ojeifo

Email

eojeifo@nd.edu

Office

128b Geddes Hall

Postdoctoral Research Scholar

Emmanuel Ojeifo is a postdoctoral research scholar at the Institute for Social Concerns, where he supports the Institute’s Graduate Justice Fellowship program. He earned his Ph.D. in theology from the University of Notre Dame in 2026, defending a dissertation titled “Who Owns the Land? Land, Violence, and Human Flourishing in Africa.” His research interests include Christian social ethics; ecological, land, and agrarian violence; ecocide and ecomartyrdom; religion, ecology, and literature; Black sanctity; and African Christianity.

During his doctoral studies, Emmanuel served as the graduate coordinator for the Kellogg Institute’s Integral Ecology Working Group, chaired by Fr. Emmanuel Katongole. He provided logistical and administrative support for the working group’s bi-monthly faculty seminars and an ongoing faculty book project documenting the autobiographical stories of scholars and practitioners who care for our common home. He also served as a graduate intern at the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good, supporting undergraduate and graduate student programming and grant review. In 2025, Emmanuel was selected as the sole student on the research committee for the university-wide Just Transformations to Sustainability (JTS) Initiative. He has held several prestigious research fellowships, including the Wilsey Distinguished Graduate Fellowship of the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good; the Lamin Sanneh Fellowship in World Christianity; and the Freedom and Prosperity Fellowship of the U.S. Atlantic Council.

Before coming to Notre Dame in 2021, Emmanuel served as personal secretary to the Cardinal Archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria, for six years. He earned an M.A. in religion in global politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and an M.Sc. in religion and science from the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh.