Dr. Rònké Òké

Dr. Rónké A. Òké is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at West Chester University. She received her BA in Political Science and Philosophy from Spelman College, MA in Philosophy from the University of Memphis, and Ph.D. in Philosophy from The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Òké specializes in race and identity formation with a particular emphasis on transnational conceptions of Blackness, decolonial feminist politics (Afro-feminism), and multicultural social justice. Dr. Òké’s work as an educator goes beyond the limits of teaching and is strongly influenced by her commitment to public philosophy and a continual striving to provide educational access for all. In the past, her work sought to reconstruct a philosophical account of lived experience that does justice to the experience of race. Currently Dr. Òké’s projects merge her interest in questions of race, citizenship, and identity with her love of African literature. In 2016, she founded The African Literati, a public programming company that provides curated events for companies, community organizations and co-working spaces. Through her company, and since 2018, Dr. Òké has been hosting monthly interactive workshops in Philadelphia framed around African literature and African writers from the Continent and the Diaspora (#StayLitPhilly).

Dr. Òké has taught at a number of institutions, presented in academic and non-academic spaces, and has taught students from middle school to continue education adults. Dr. Òké’s forthcoming article in the Critical Philosophy of Race journal—“Traveling Elsewheres: Afropolitanism, Americanah and the Illocution of Travel”—challenges the claim that returning to Africa is counterintuitive and only departure from the Continent is desirable, and in so doing, it attempts to displace the centrality of America as the necessary backdrop of subjective life, especially immigrant life. Dr. Òké’s training as an academic philosopher has given her experience discussing and facilitating workshopsand trainings, on race, diversity work, institutional responsibility, pedagogical multiculturalism, gender inclusion and the African Diaspora. Her work has allowed her to participate in and facilitate cross-cultural dialogues in Johannesburg and Capetown, South Africa; Ibadan and Lagos, Nigeria, Kigali, Rwanda; Liberta, Antigua; Paris, France; San Juan, Puerto Rico and various Diasporic communities across the United States.