Saheed Aderinto was born and bred in Ibadan, Oyo State. He had his primary education at Adeen International School where he graduated in 1990. He proceeded to Ibadan City Academy for his secondary education where he finished in 1996. Later on, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in History at the first and best University of Ibadan in 2004.
In the quest for knowledge, he relocated to the United States of America in 2005 to obtain another degree at the University of Texas, Austin. This was where he bagged his Masters in Arts and Doctor of Philosophy badges in 2007 and 2010 respectively. In the fall of 2010, he officially started a teaching career at Western Carolina University, Cullowhee NC. In the fall of 2022, Aderinto climbed the ladder to a new position as a Professor of History and African Diaspora Studies at Florida International University.
Over the years, Aderinto is seen to be influenced by a holistic approach to historical research. The approach borrows vocabulary, methodology, and discursive tools from a wide range of disciplines and sub-disciplines. He is driven by ideas that do not overcategorize history but connect diverse strands of knowledge in understanding the past. With this approach, he has expanded the frontiers of Nigerian history, distorting disciplinary boundaries in meaningful ways.
Back in 2016, Aderinto co-organized a conference on Lagos with Abosede George and Ademide Adelusi-Adeluyi at Barnard College, New York City. A conference that graduated to become the Lagos Studies Association, an international interdisciplinary organization of academic and non-academic practitioners whose interest focus on Lagos and its people.
Aderinto has written several literary works and published to his name are eight books, thirty-six journal articles and book chapters, forty encyclopedia articles, and twenty book reviews.
His literary work, “When Sex Threatened the State: Illicit Sexuality, Nationalism, and Politics in Colonial Nigeria” is described as the first comprehensive history of sexuality in colonial Nigeria which made him an awardee of the 2016 Nigerian Studies Association’s Book Award Prize for the most important scholarly book/work on Nigeria published in the English language.
To crown it all, the same literary work, “When Sex Threatened the State: Illicit Sexuality, Nationalism, and Politics in Colonial Nigeria” qualified him as the first and only Nigerian to win the prestigious Dan David 300,000 dollars Nigerian Studies Association Book Prize which is the largest history prize in the world.
Aderinto is an inspiration and this is what we celebrate.
