Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Netherlands
fellow
Eyo Mensah
2024-2025
Home institution
University of Calabar
Country of origin (home institution)
Nigeria
Discipline(s)
Anthropology and ethnology
Language sciences and linguistics
Social Sciences
Theme(s)
Cultural Studies
Environment, Sustainability & Biodiversity
Identity
Inequalities, inclusion & Social Innovation
Fellowship dates
›
Biography
Eyo Mensah is a professor of anthropological linguistics in the Department of Linguistics, University of Calabar, Nigeria and is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA), University of Ghana, Legon. His research interests include morphosyntax, pragmatics, language and identity/naming, language and sexuality/gender, youth language and African studies. He is AHP/ACLS Postdoctoral Fellow, Leventis Postdoctoral Researcher (University of London), and Firebird Anthropological Research Fellow. He was also a Senior Research Fellow in Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), University of Freiburg, Germany (2021). He is a beneficiary of many grants including the Endangered Languages Development Programme (ELDP) (University of London) grant and TETFUND National Research Fund (Abuja). He is the General Editor of the Journal of the Linguistic Association of Nigeria (JOLAN).
Research Project
Personal naming practices and environmental sustainability in Nigeria
Research question: In what ways, and to what extent, do personal naming practices reflect awareness of environmental sustainability in Nigeria?
Eyo Mensah’s project explores how small-scale societies in Nigeria use personal naming practices to create awareness, promote environmental resilience and minimise the depletion of natural resources such as forests, farmland, hunting grounds and fishing waters. Specific names are given to children as measures to ensure that human society operates within ecological limits to protect and preserve nature.
Mensah is drawing on the socio-onomastic theory, which takes into account the social, cultural and situational domains in which names are given and used. The goals of his project are to investigate how personal naming practices are used to enhance knowledge of environmental sustainability and to improve understanding of historical processes of conserving nature and culture in some local communities in Nigeria.
He concludes that naming practices form an important keystone of traditional epistemology. These practices promote a culture of sustainability, with the aim of improving the quality of all forms of life. And they reveal a variety of concepts of identity which are related to environmental issues.
Research Interests:
morphosyntax; pragmatics; language and identity/naming; language and sexuality/gender; youth language and African studies