Social Sciences Division
Teaching Assistant
PhD Student
Graduate
Social Sciences 1
404
Subject to change
Division Of Social Sciences
Boluwaji AJAYI (Bolu) is a Nigerian archaeologist and graduate student in the Department of Anthropology. Bolu's research interest primarily focuses on the nature of social complexities that engendered everyday life of settlements on the margins of early cities and empires in the Yoruba-Edo region of Southwestern Nigeria ca. 18th -20 century.
His research adopts the theory of practices coupled with agency and feminist perspectives to address questions about how quotidian life was structured and the active role of women within these local and regional spaces. Bolu is an experienced archaeologist in field and laboratory techniques; he is a mentor to several Young African archaeologists and a member of several archaeological associations. On days when he is not in the lab or classroom, he volunteers in a local pantry in Santa Cruz and goes hiking while listening to solemn R&B instrumentals.
Historical Archaology, Urbanism, Materiality, Social Complexities, Household Archaeology and GIS Application.
2023-24 Milam-McGinty-Kaun Award for Excellence in Teaching.
2024 Honorarium: Black Archaeology, Stanford Archaeology Center.
2024 Archaeological Research Center Research Grant.
2023 Archaeological Research Center Research Grant.
https://archaeology.stanford.edu/events/black-archaeology-intersection-black-studies-and-archaeology
Guest Lecturer ANTH 175: African Archaeology, Cities and Empires in the Forest Zone.
https://safarchaeology.org/resources/Documents/Student%20day%20program%205.27.pdf
Babalola, A. B., & Ajayi, B. D. (2022). Of glass, stone, shell, and metal: Ecologies of beads in medieval and post-medieval West Africa. postmedieval, 13(1-2), 197-221.
Ajayi, B.D. (2020). The Past Lost in the Present: Reinvigorating Heritage Management in Southwest Nigeria. Artifacts, Bone, Disourse. 7, 11-25.
