Research

Dr Olumba’s 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. His research engages with the intersecting challenges of armed conflict, migration, and the emotional dimensions of social life.

Selected Academic Publications

For a full list of published peer-reviewed articles, visit: Google Scholar

Recent

Olumba, E. E. (2025) From Students to Refugees: Student’s (Im)mobility in the Wake of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.
Olumba, E. E. (2025) Choosing to stay: The Resilience-Accessibility Framework as a New Perspective on Immobility Amidst Adversity. Migration Studies.
Olumba, E. E. (2025) ‘The Necropolitics of Drone Bases and Use in the African Context’, Critical Studies on Terrorism. 18(1), 139–161.
Samuel Oyewole, Christopher Isike, Tony Onzi and Ezenwa Olumba, (2025) Autonomous Weapons Systems in Africa: Emerging Realities, Prospects, and Risks, Journal of Applied Security Research.
Nwosu, B., Okoli, C. R., Olumba, E. E. and Okpaleke, F. N., (2025) Farmer-Herder Crises, Uncivil Discourses and the Politics of Nigeria’s Security Responses, Human Affairs.
Olumba, E. E., Gola, Alessandra and Lowe E. Mfon (2024) Trapped in Time and Place: Cognitive Immobility Among Diaspora Communities. Diaspora Studies, 18(1), 57-78.
Olumba, E. E. (2024) ‘Preserving the Future through the Past: Collective Memory and Immobility in Adversity’, Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology. 30(4), 483–494.
Onyebueke, Victor; Nwosu, Bernard; Uwaezuoke, Nonso; Akalameaku, Juliet; Nnamani, Collins; Olumba, E. E. (2024) Patriarchal Restrictions and Maternal Manoeuvres: Igbo Women’s Quest for Land Inheritance Rights., Gender and Sustainability in the Global South, 1 (1), 23-52. https://doi.org/10.1515/gsgs-2024-0001
Olumba, E. E. (2024) ‘The Politics of Eco-violence: Why is Conflict Escalating in Nigeria’s Middle Belt?’, Terrorism and Political Violence, 36(2), pp. 180-197.
Olumba, E. E. (2023) ‘The Homeless Mind in a Mobile World: an Autoethnographic Approach on Cognitive Immobility in International Migration’, Culture & Psychology, 29(4), pp.769–790

→ Featured in media outlets such as Yahoo News, MSN, Insider, and Gulf News etc.
→ 2024 Best Article and Chapter Award, International Studies Association.

Olumba, E. E. (2024) ‘Navigating Credibility and Approachability in Conflict Zones: Insights from Fieldwork in Nigerian Communities Facing Eco-Violence’, The Qualitative Report, 29(7), 1876-1891.
Nwosu, B., Okoli, C. R., Olumba, E. E. and Okpaleke, F. N., (2025) Farmer-Herder Crises, Uncivil Discourses and the Politics of Nigeria’s Security Responses, Human Affairs.
Olumba, E. E. (2023) ‘The Case for a ‘Cognitive Turn’ in Conflict Analysis: Lessons from Afghanistan and the Sahel of Africa’, Global Change, Peace & Security. 35(3), 229–246.

→ Shortlisted for the Cedric Smith Prize 2025, Conflict Research Society.

Olumba, E. E. (2023) Anchored in History: Understanding the persistence of Eco-violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt through Collective Memory, Genealogy, 7(3).
Okpaleke, F.N., Nwosu, B.U., Okoli, C.R. and Olumba, E.E. (2023) The case for drones in counter-insurgency operations in West African Sahel, African Security Review, 32(4), 351-367.

2022

Olumba, E.E., Nwosu, B.U., Okpaleke, F.N. and Okoli, R.C. (2022) ‘Conceptualising eco-violence: moving beyond the multiple labelling of water and agricultural resource conflicts in the Sahel’, Third World Quarterly, 43(9), 2075-2090.
Okoli, C. R., Nwosu, B., Okpaleke, F. N., and Olumba, E. E. (2022) Security in the Lake Chad Basin and Sahel Region after Idris Déby, Small Wars & Insurgencies, 34(6), 1130-1153.

Selected General Audience Publications

For a full list of articles, visit: Psychology Today, The Conversation

Olumba, E. E. (7^th July 2025) How Childhood Trauma Can Linger: Even in success, childhood trauma can still make an impact on our lives. Psychology Today.
Olumba, E. E. (30May 2025) They Left Africa to Survive, but Lost Themselves: The invisible burden of Africa’s new migration wave. Psychology Today.
Olumba, E. E. (1st January 2025) Break Free from the Past and Stay Committed to Your Goals: How to create lasting, positive change. Psychology Today.
Olumba, E. E. (17th February 2025) Why Some Identities Stay: Why a celebrated supermodel insists “I am still a refugee.”. Psychology Today.
Olumba, E. E. & John Sunday Ojo (29 April 2024) Russia has tightened its hold over the Sahel region – and now it’s looking to Africa’s west coast . The Conversation.
Olumba, E. E. (17 March 2024) The Niger River and the Dearth of History Deconstructing the Myths of Mungo Park The Republic.
Olumba, E. E. (11 October 2023) How collective memories fuel conflicts The Conversation.
Olumba, E. E. (3 August 2023) Niger coup: west African union has pledged to intervene – but some members support the plotters. Yahoo News.
Olumba, E. E. & Uba, D. (22 June 2023) How new UK immigration rules will separate more international students from their families. Yahoo News.
Olumba, E. E. (28 February 2023) We need a new way of understanding violence in the Sahel. LSE Blog.
Olumba, E. E. (31 August 2023) Supporting refugees by addressing cognitive immobility. Transforming Society.
Olumba E. (15 July 2022) https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2022/07/whats-name-making-case-sahel-conflict-eco-violence/ Wilson Center.
Olumba, E. E. (29 June 2022) ‘Cognitive immobility’ – when you’re mentally trapped in a place from your past. The Conversation.
Olumba, E. E. (4 April February 2022) States must invest in drone research and development to tackle insecurity in the Sahel. LSE Blog.

Book Review

Olumba, E. E. (2025) ‘Book Review: The Migration of Albanians from Montenegro and Kosovo to the United States: In Search of Home’, International Migration Review.
Olumba, E. E. (2024) ‘A Country of Defiance: Mapping the Casamance in Senegal. By Mark W. Deets’, Journal of Strategic Security, 17(1 (2), pp. 134-136.
Olumba, E. E. (2023) ‘Book review: Mobility, mobilization, and counter/insurgency: the routes of terror in an African context’, Contemporary Voices: St Andrews Journal of International Relations, 3(1).
Olumba, E. E. (2023) ‘Review of the book: Written Out: The Silencing of Regina Gelana Twala, by Joel Cabrita’, Africa Today, 70(2), pp.112-114.