Before joining ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳, Emmanuel worked at the intersection of academia and practice. He was an environmental education teacher and a project manager with the Santé pour tous dans l’Unité et la Solidarité (SANUS) NGO in Abomey-Calavi. As a teacher, Emmanuel developed a teaching curriculum to engage middle and high school students with hands-on activities and positive cultural-historical environmental preservation values. He launched several local projects with SANUS NGO as Educ’envir or Sanus’Biblio – an environmental education initiative and a small students’ library. He also serves as a research assistant with the Civic Academy for Africa’s Future () a newly born Beninese thinktank working on topics covering International Relations, Governance, Medias, and the Environment.
After receiving his M.A. in Global Environmental Politics with the American University as a Fulbright in 2017, he developed a particular interest in urban political ecology (UPE). Focusing on the Benin Republic, his master’s research paper drew from the political ecology of waste and the lens of UPE to suggest achieving the sustainable development goals through waste management. Though his previous interest was waste management, he became more inquisitive of urban studies broadly speaking. His current research is concerned with urban development in the Global South. He particularly commits himself to understand and use UPE in his investigation of the urban in Benin, a country marked by ongoing discourses of sustainable development and of “revelation”.
Along with the urban, Emmanuel is also interested in African history religion and Christianity, languages, discourse construction, mental health, and environmental issues.
Research interests
- Precolonial and actual urban planning/life in Africa
- Geographies of mental health support, battling through inequality and equity
- Alternatives to the historicity and coloniality of planning and sustainable development
- Shaping attitudes through languages, values, religion
- Theorizing or not theorizing UPE in the global south
Blog posts
Tying a New Rope to an Old One: Developing an Environmental Education Curriculum in Benin. .
Scholarships
Fulbright 2015-2017
Affiliations
Santé pour tous dans l’Unité et la Solidarité (SANUS) NGO ;
Civic Academy for Africa’s Future (CiAAF)
Supervisors
Prof Claire Mercer
Dr Ryan Centner