Nípa mi
“Kúnmi is a passionate and observant student of the spoken and written word.”
my friend, Stephanie
Hi, I’m Kúnmi. I like visual art, crafts, contemporary literature, learning languages, studying language (linguistics), books, digital and non-digital technologies, and useless facts.
This site is trying to be a collection of all I have done, do, and hope to do.
Over the years, I have attempted (albeit with varying degrees of success) to learn French, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, and Arabic. This infatuation with foreign phonetics was the reason why, after a few years of finding ever more creative ways to teach people English in Spain, China, and the UK, I decided to pursue an MA in Linguistics at SOAS University of London.
While at SOAS, amidst debates on decolonisation and diversity, my attention shifted towards heritage language education, with a fixation on Yorùbá because well…I’m Yorùbá. This renewed focus was the foundation of my dissertation and featured prominently in a podcast episode I produced with the university’s radio stations and SOAS’s World Languages Institute. I wrote my dissertation on language shift among a Yorùbá population in the UK through the lens of Family Language Policy. As a Yorùbá heritage speaker myself, I am always looking to connect with those interested in maintaining our language in the diaspora.
I’m currently a doctoral student of the Second Language Studies program at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Before joining UH Mānoa, I completed Teachers College’s Language Program Management Certificate while I was working as a Program Coordinator for the American University in Baghdad’s English Language Academy.
My professional interest as an English teacher centres on developing and nurturing “conscientização” or critical consciousness, particularly when teaching English for Academic Purposes. I’m also interested in bringing knowledge of emotions and affect into conversations around language and literacy pedagogy from a critical and radical perspective.
Past Projects
Since 2021, I’ve been working with other volunteers on the AMINGA youth development program that runs a yearly summer camp on the island of Sao Vicente, Cape Verde. 
I’ve written non-fiction and adapt stories into graded readers that help inspire a life-long love of reading in young learners, specifically for children learning English as a foreign language. The first book was published in early 2022. 
Àbínibí Project is an intergenerational language learning programme, delivered by Culture Tree, which will see young learners, aged 7 – 13 years, paired with elder Yoruba speakers for one-to-one online Yorùbá language practice and intergenerational relationship building. 
Gray Macaw was started to help people learn languages in an easy and intuitive manner based on the belief that language learning should not be a boring, frustrating experience. We developed a piloted an online Yorùbá: course for heritage learners 
SOAS Working Paper in Linguistic is an outlet for research in progress conducted by graduate students, faculty, alumni, and research associates. 
Goldsmiths Racialised Postgraduate Network
2021, Design Editor
RESET: The Journal, vol 1
Goldsmith’s Racialised Postgraduate Network
2021, Co-Editor with Jospeh Lovestrand
Working Papers in Linguistics, Vol 20
SOAS University of London
5 Dec 2024, Guest Lecturer
“Why don’t we speak our mother’s tongue? Yoruba language loss, reclamation, & revitalization in the diaspora”
MA African Studies, SOAS University of London
25 Nov 2020, Panel Member
Connecting the African Diaspora Through Language: The Mapping of Yorùbá
SOAS Alumni Panel Discussion
19 – 24 Oct 2020, Conference Assistant (technical)
SOAS Festival of Ideas: Decolonising Knowledge
Online Conference
21 Oct 2019, Event Organiser
Think Like a White Man: Nels Abbey & Symeon Brown In Conversation
SOAS African Caribbean Society Event & Book Launch
Adekunmi Olatunji 