Nigerian student finds her niche in English at ISU

For Nigerian Ph.D. student Elizabeth Olaoye, coming to ISU opened up new ways to study writers from her home country. Braving the uncertainties of resigning her teaching job in Nigeria and moving her family to Idaho, Olaoye found a new home in Pocatello and in ISU’s Ph.D. program in English and the Teaching of English.

Olaoye knew she needed a professional change, but, she said, “resigning from a job in Nigeria means bracing up to face oblivion.” Ultimately, she said, the circumstances of her work pressured her to leave for a university across the world. 

“ISU found me,” she said.

She described the circumstances of her admission to ISU as “miraculous,” recounting how, worried that she would not be able to finance her research independently, she came across an online advertisement for ISU’s English Ph.D. program. Olaoye recalled how, prior to seeing the advertisement, “I had never heard of Idaho, much less of ISU.”

But she summoned the courage to email the professor who posted the advertisement, Jessica Winston, now chair of the Department of English and Philosophy.

Olaoye received a “very warm” reply from Winston, who encouraged her to apply to the PhD program and confirmed that the program could support her research interests in feminism and Nigerian literature.

So Olaoye applied.

“It was a long process,” she said, “but the Director of Graduate Studies worked with me to fulfill the Graduate School requirements.” She sometimes felt discouraged by the international bureaucracy that stretched out the application and admission process, and at one point almost withdrew her application.

But revitalized by an encouraging reply, Olaoye finished taking her entrance exams and completed her application.

Olaoye was admitted to the program in March 2018, and her journey as a Ph.D. student in ISU’s English department began.

Olaoye moved to Idaho in the summer of 2018 with two young children. “The community welcomed us with open arms,” she said. “We have enjoyed the kindness of strangers, many people that we didn’t know before we got here … Because of the kindness in this community, we were able to stay here and thrive until my husband was able to join us a year later.” 

Her classmates in the English Ph.D. program have been especially supportive, showing her the way things are done in the U.S, a completely new society for her and her children. 

“Some of them, for instance, took it upon themselves to show me what we will need for that first winter,” she said, and then, “they gave us some of those items, such as coats, hats and boots.”

“The faculty at Idaho State University have been so supportive,” Olaoye emphasized. “Realizing I was coming from a different culture, they were patient and offered as much assistance as possible to ease my entrance into the American system of education.”

Since arriving, Olaoye describes having many opportunities that have enriched and furthered her research interests.

In the fall of 2019, Olaoye “had the privilege” of receiving mentorship from Amanda Zink as a teaching intern. Because of Zink’s research focus on gender in literature, Olaoye proposed to co-teach English 3311, Gender in Literature, using all Nigerian texts. 

“Professor Zink instructed me in the major gender theories, and we applied them to specific Nigerian texts,” she said. “It was a great experience for me!” 

At the end of that course, Olaoye and Zink believed that they had made so many important discoveries on specific texts that they decided to publish one of their several analyses of those texts. Zink supported and supervised the collation of these lecture notes, and the pair’s work is now published as a full paper in The Body Studies Journal, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal on Gender Studies. 

“For me, coming to Idaho has been a blessing, and I am forever grateful for the opportunity to learn with the seasoned professors here.”

Olaoye and Zink’s published paper can be accessed at bodystudiesjournal.org/season-of-crimson-blossoms.

Olaoye is now teaching first-year writing and working on her doctoral thesis.

Story by the Department of English and Philosophy and edits by Madison Shumway