Dr Ezenwa E. Olumba is a Leverhulme Early Career Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Society and Politics, Aston University, Birmingham, UK. He leads a Leverhulme Trust-funded project on how adolescent asylum seekers and refugees in the UK process trauma, with a focus on cognitive immobility and its effects on their well-being, identity, and social relations. As a critical migration and conflict scholar, Dr Olumba’s research the influence of violence, culture, and political structures on emotions, (im)mobility experiences, and collective behaviour.

He pioneered the concepts of cognitive immobility, which explains how mental entrapment in a past location or life experience shapes present realities; aerial colonialism, which critiques how modern technologies of domination shape realities on the African continent; and the resilience–accessibility framework, which supports the exploration of people’s staying behaviour in areas affected by adversity. His work connects theoretical innovation with grounded empirical research on the experiences of people living under adversity, especially those who face challenges associated with (im)mobility and the pressures of everyday life.

Dr Olumba earned his doctorate from Royal Holloway, University of London. He is an Associate Fellow of Advance HE (formerly Higher Education Academy), has taught at Royal Holloway, University of London, and the University of Bedfordshire. He also served as president of a section at the British Science Association (2024-2025). He is a contributing writer to Psychology Today, where he publishes public-facing essays on identity, trauma, and migratory experience. His academic work appears in leading journals, including the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Migration Studies, Culture & Psychology, Third World Quarterly, Critical Studies on Terrorism, African Security Review, Terrorism and Political Violence, and Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology.