AYO SEKAI, Ph.D.
UWP
"There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don’t expect you to save the world, I do think it’s not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair, and disrespect." –Nikki Giovanni Jr. (African-American writer and educator)
#BlackAcademicExcellence
As CEO/Publisher and Founder of Universal Write Publications (UWP Books), a Social Science Academic Press, her practitioner role distinctly connects with her mission to impact Linguistic Imperialism and rhetoric through the Afrocentric and African Centered constructs. Implications of her research as an Activist Scholar, as well as a Black-centered publisher, will provide a greater understanding of how marginalized social groups can protect themselves by understanding the role of the hegemonic supremacist entity, that Black people are playing by rules to a game that was never meant for them to win.
Because of her passion for educating and creating intellectual safe spaces for people to grow and develop, UWP Books is intentional about publishing books by Black scholars from an African center that provides them opportunities for tenure, rigorous and competitive citations, with the ability to write from one's lived experience and scholarship, in order to take ownership of Black identity and historical legacy.
For speaking engagement inquiries, please contact AyoSekai@uwpbooks.com.
Click here to schedule a meeting with Dr. Sekai
Major Works
CEO/Founder of UWP Books | Author 🖋 | Scholar 🎓| Speaker | Ph.D.| Linguist activist
Over the last 22 years, Dr. Ayo Sekai has worked to advance outcomes for education and business through academic research, federal leadership, and scholarly publications through UWP Press. Sekai has taught as a high and middle school K-12 teacher, is a prolific invited presenter and speaker, and faculty and academic development thought leader with decades of expertise in print media, magazine, fiction, and trade publications. Earning her Ph.D. in Political Science from Howard University (HBCU), Dr. Sekai operationalize her research specializations in Black Politics and International Relations to interrogate language structures through the frameworks of Linguistic Imperialism, Glottopolitics, and Raciolinguistic to disrupt public policy and politics that perpetuates structural and systematic racism, Dr. Sekai uses her platform to elevate Black Scholars' research that bridges the gap between the Global North and the Global South with inclusive diasporic narratives, reclamation of agency, and empowering educators in the academy to participate in not just the "Publish or Perish" scenarios for scholars, but to engage the publishing ecosystem, by citing the works of fellow Black scholars, using their titles in the classroom, publishing with Black publishers across genre, discipline, and in journals, to shift the trajectory of a long-delayed manifestation of equity and equality in research scholarship throughout Global Africa.
Dr. Ayo Sekai is a Fulbright Specialist and a life member of multiple academic and practitioner associations. She serves on numerous boards and is an active scholar presenting and writing on topics that align with her research scholarly publications, including her recorded social justice poetry as a spoken word poetic activist and her book, A2: A Scholarly Poetical Science Discourse. Sekai has leveraged her partnership with SAGE Publishing, a global social science press, to effect and impact the voice of the diaspora as actors and agents to no longer be observed but to be observers of history through intellectual discourse. Find her on Google Scholar, Research Gate, our website at UWP, and all social media platforms. She is excited to engage your students and faculty in classrooms, symposiums, seminars, residency, and lecture series.
