Ayodele James Akinola, Ph.D.
I study how people persuade, explain, and make meaning in writing, in conversation, and on the digital platforms where so much of public life now happens.
Executive Director, American Center for Interdisciplinary Research
Associate Faculty, University of Indianapolis
Welcome
I am a rhetoric and writing studies scholar with a second home in discourse analysis and pragmatics. My recent work looks at online reviews as a rhetorical genre and asks how platforms such as TripAdvisor and Google Reviews shape what travelers come to accept as real. Earlier, I studied how neurologists and patients talk to each other in Nigerian teaching hospitals.
I teach technical and professional communication, public speaking, rhetoric and composition, and digital media, and I have taught in person, online, and in hybrid classrooms.
Research
Digital writing, platform cultures, misinformation, cultural rhetorics, and medical and computational pragmatics.
Research projectsTeaching
Courses that help students write, speak, and design for real audiences, on the page and on screen.
TeachingDigital humanities
Building networks, workshops, and training for digital humanities scholars across Nigeria and the African continent.
Leadership and serviceCurrently
- Executive Director, American Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ACIR)A U.S. nonprofit that supports interdisciplinary engagement, public dialogue, and collaborative exchange. americancir.org
- Associate Faculty, University of IndianapolisDepartment of Communication
- Turning my dissertation into a bookA monograph on online reviews, platforms, and the construction of reality.