Dr. Olanrewaju Lasisi, a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Virginia, is an esteemed scholar specializing in the intersection of power, landscape, skyscape, and indigenous hermeneutics in African archaeology. He holds a Ph.D. and a Master’s degree in Anthropology from William & Mary, where his doctoral dissertation on the nature and structure of power and landscape in the Ijebu Kingdom, southwestern Nigeria, was honored with the Distinguished Dissertation Award.
Dr. Lasisi’s research methodology is a unique blend of ethnography, performance genre, archaeology, oral history, and archaeoastronomy. This interdisciplinary approach allows him to explore the intricate relationship between astronomy, architecture, ritual, and power within the Yoruba cultural landscape. His work probes the multifaceted functions of potsherd pavements as cartographic maps, sundials, and naturalistic art objects, unearthing the first evidence for the materiality of cultural astronomy in the region.
Currently, Dr. Lasisi is working on two book projects, “Yoruba Archaeoastronomy” and “Architecture of Ritual Movements”. The first project (YA-University Press of Colorado) delves into the methodological exploration of ancient astronomy in indigenous societies, using Yoruba as a case study. He examines how ancient practices of observing the heavens were encoded in indigenous hermeneutics, such as ritual movements and oral poetry. Through this lens, he sheds light on various aspects of Yoruba astronomy, including the Yoruba calendar, sundials, moondials, and the materiality of solstices and equinoxes—a realm of research that has remained underexplored in West Africa until now.
In his second book project, “Architecture of Ritual Movements,” Dr. Lasisi redefines our understanding of the unseen and disintegrated physical architecture by emphasizing the enduring character of ritual movements as architecture itself. He explores how these ritual movements shape, reshape, and memorialize spaces, offering a fresh perspective on the relationship between movement, space, and the construction of meaning.
In addition to his Doctorate and Master’s degrees from William & Mary, Dr. Lasisi also holds a Bachelor’s degree in archaeology from the University of Ibadan. Prior to his Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, he was a Fellow at the Harvard Research Institute and an NEH Fellow at the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies at the University of Arkansas. Since 2014, he has been conducting research in Ijebu-Ode and currently leads the Ijebu-Ode Archaeological Project. His research has received support from prestigious organizations, including but not limited to the Wenner-Gren Foundation, Mellon Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington Explorers, and Dumbarton Oaks, among others.
Dr. Lasisi’s is an incoming assistant professor of Anthropology at the Ohio State University. This is a testament to his dedication and scholarly contributions. His long-term ambition is to receive the Nobel Prize, a goal that his current work on different extraordinary projects is steadily propelling him towards. His passion for time travel, quantum mechanics, consciousness, and his love for God continue to inspire his research and his life.
OLANREWAJU LASISI 