Faculty Profiles

Sheriff Folarin is a dynamic university teacher, consummate researcher, and public intellectual with over 25 years in the global university and research communities. From his formative years at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria's premier academic institution, he moved to Covenant University in 2004 and in 2017, reached the rank of a Full Professor of International Relations. He served as a Visiting Scholar at Texas State University, Department of Political Science in 2022 and later returned to the institution, where he currently teaches. He also serves as the Associate Editor-in-Chief of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) Journal, Good Governance Worldwide (GGW) https://goodgovernanceworldwide.org/https://goodgovernanceworldwide.org/ and has produced three issues of the journal.

In February 2025, based on his active and robust research profile and invaluable contributions to the field of political science, Dr. Folarin was recognized and honored with the appointment as a Senior Research Associate of the Institute for the Future of Knowledge, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Center for Conflict Management, University of Rwanda, among other academic institutions of repute. Previously in his former institution, he pioneered international linkages and programs, and developed the university’s internationalization vision and mission, establishing its strong collaboration with 38 universities across his two terms in office as director of the international office.

Folarin’s teaching, research, and community development service experience in university systems across Africa and the United States have earned him peer recognition and academic honors/awards, including invitations to speak at high-level international and national strategic conferences and meetings. Among his awards are fellowships of the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP) n 2015, and Study of the United States Institutes in 2007. He is a Life Member of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Nigerian Political Science Association, Midwest Political Science Association, Citizen Diplomacy International (CDI), and the International Society for Development and Sustainability (ISDS). His areas of research interest include- but are not limited to- international/global politics, foreign policy, African governance and politics, and international and comparative public administration. He has supervised and produced 13 PhDs, and sat on the doctoral dissertation panels of over 55 successful doctoral candidates overall.

Dr. Folarin is a specialist in African, Middle Eastern and European diplomacy and politics. He has over 100 scholarly publications to his credit, including peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, and seven (7) books. Most recently, he published the book, African Politics: From the Age of Empires to Contemporary Times (Kendall Hunt). He authored Declining Hegemonic Foreign Policies of Nigeria: A Historico-Political Analysis (Springer Nature/Palgrave, 2024, and Rwanda’s Radical Transformation since the End of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023). He is the co-editor of the 2022 book, Religion and Global Politics: Soft Power in Nigeria and Beyond (Lexington Books, 2022), and The United Nations and Sustainable Development Goals (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), which was foreworded by Antonio Guterress, Secretary-General of the United Nations.