Sobukwe Odinga

Sobukwe Odinga

Sobukwe Odinga

Assistant Professor

Email: sodinga@afam.ucla.edu

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Biography

Assistant ProfessorDepartment of African American Studies

Sobukwe Odinga is an Assistant Professor in the Department of African American Studies at UCLA. His areas of expertise are International Relations theory, African regionalism and security cooperation, and race and US foreign policy. His current research focuses on the global security relations of African states, with an emphasis on intelligence cooperation and covert operations. His book project, Arms Outstretched: Diplomacy, Intelligence, and US-Africa Security Politics, examines the bargaining and negotiations that sustain US-Africa intelligence liaisons and the implications of these liaisons for regional conflict in Africa. He is also working on a monograph that explores shifting African American conceptions of US national security in the context of contemporary US domestic and international counterterrorism policies. Dr. Odinga recently completed a Vice Provost Postdoctoral Fellowship at The University of Pennsylvania.

Education

  • Ph.D., Political Science, The City University of New York Graduate Center
  • M.A., Africana Studies, New York University

Publications

  • Odinga, Sobukwe (2018) “The Privileged Friendship: Reassessing the US Central Intelligence Agency Operation at Zaire’s Kamina Airbase.” Diplomacy and Statecraft 29 (4) 692-715.
  • Odinga, Sobukwe (2017) “We Recommend Compliance: Bargaining and Leverage in Ethiopian-US Intelligence Cooperation.” Review of African Political Economy 44 (153) 432-448.
  • Odinga, Sobukwe (2005) “An Interview with Chinua Achebe.” Black Renaissance 6 (2) 32-46.

Awards, Honors, & Fellowships

  • 2017 APCG-Lynne Rienner Best Dissertation Award
  • African Politics Conference Group, American Political Science Association
  • 2015 The Ralph Bunche Dissertation Fellowship
  • The Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies
  • 2015 Award for Archival Research in African Diaspora Studies
  • The Advanced Research Collaborative, The CUNY Graduate Center