Dr Elvis Imafidon is a Reader in African Philosophy and Head of the School of History, Religions and Philosophies at SOAS University of London.
He is also Chair of the Centre for Global and Comparative Philosophies at SOAS, a 2017 Fellow of the Johannesburg Institute of Advanced Study and a Research Associate of the African Centre for Epistemology and the Philosophy of Science, University of Johannesburg.
Elvis Imafidon is the author and editor of several books, including African Philosophy and the Otherness of Albinism: White Skin, Black Race (Routledge 2019), Handbook of African Philosophy of Difference (Springer 2020), Handbook of African Philosophy (Springer 2023), and Doing African Philosophy: Beyond Textuality and Individual Authorship (Bloomsbury 2025).
Research interests
Dr Elvis Imafidon's expertise is in African philosophy broadly construed, and key research areas include theoretical and thematic issues in ontology, ethics and epistemology in African traditions often in critical dialogue with Western philosophy.
Core theoretical and thematic interests engaged with primarily from African philosophical perspectives include communitarian ontology and collaborative pedagogies, the philosophy of difference, personhood, gender, inclusive pedagogies, disability, corporeality and healthcare, and the critical discourse of intellectuality, including ecocentric and collaborative intellectuality.
Shifting Wrongs to Rights: Lessons in Human Rights from the Situation of Mothers Impacted by Albinism in Africa
Ibhawoh, Bonny, Reimer-Kirkham, Sheryl, Ero, Ikponwosa, Mgijima-Konopi, Innocentia, Beaman, Lori, Senkoro, Perpetua, Astle, Barbara, Strobell, Emma and Imafidon, Elvis, 2022, Journal of Human Rights Practice (14), 3, pp 838-858
Understanding Disability in Sub-Saharan Africa [Special issue of: Review of Disability Studies. Vol.18, no.1/2]
Imafidon, Elvis, (eds.) and Baker, Charlotte, (eds.) (2022). Honolulu, HI: Review of Disability Studies. (Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal)
Deep Ecology, Ontic Relationality, and Positionality
Imafidon, Elvis (2025). In: Abudu, Kenneth Uyi, (eds.), Behrens, Kevin Gary, (eds.) and Imafidon, Elvis, (eds.), African Philosophy and Deep Ecology. London: Routledge, pp 116-126
Imafidon, Elvis (2025). In: Green, Stephen, (ed.), Doing Metaphysics in a Diverse World: How We Make Sense of Things Across Cultures. London: Bloomsbury Publishers, pp 259-270
Africa and the epistemic normativity of disability
Imafidon, Elvis and Abudu, Kenneth Uyi (2024). In: Abay, Robel Afeworki, (eds.) and Soldatic, Karen, (eds.), Intersectional Colonialities: Embodied Colonial Violence and Practices of Resistance at the Axis of Disability, Race, Indigeneity, Class, and Gender. London: Routledge, pp 100-119
Imafidon, Elvis (2023). In: Ikhane, Peter, (eds.) and Ukpokolo, Isaac, (eds.), African Epistemology: Essays on Being and Knowledge. London: Routledge, pp 48-59
Introduction: Changing Narratives of Albinism in Africa
Imafidon, Elvis and Baker, Charlotte (2022). In: Imafidon, Elvis, (eds.) and Baker, Charlotte, (eds.), Cultural Representations of Albinism in Africa: Narratives of Change. Oxford: Peter Lang, pp 1-14
Challenging Traditional Understandings: Embedding Accurate Knowledge of Albinism in African Cultures
Imafidon, Elvis (2022). In: Baker, Charlotte, (eds.) and Imafidon, Elvis, (eds.), Cultural Representations of Albinism in Africa: Narratives of Change. Oxford: Peter Lang, pp 15-35
Imafidon, Elvis (2022). In: Grischow, Jeff, (eds.) and Mfoafo-M'Carthy, Magnus, (eds.), Disability Rights and Inclusiveness in Africa. Suffolk: James Currey, pp 231-246
African Ethno-Ethics and Bioethical Principlism: Implication for the Othered Patient
Imafidon, Elvis (2022). In: Agada, Ada, (ed.), Ethnophilosophy and the Search for the Wellspring of African Philosophy. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, pp 175-187
Ageing, Ageism, Cultural Representations of the Elderly and the Duty to Care in African Traditions
Imafidon, Elvis, Iyare, Austin E. and Abudu, Kenneth U. (2022). In: Chimakonam, Jonathan O., (eds.), Eiteyibo, Edwin, (eds.) and Odimegwu, Ike, (eds.), Essays on Contemporary Issues in African Philosophy. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, pp 281-300
Dealing with the Trauma of a Loss: Interrogating the Feminine Experience of Coping with Spouse’s Death in African Traditions
Imafidon, Elvis (2018). In: Chimakonam, Jonathan O., (eds.) and de Toit, Louise, (eds.), African Philosophy and the Epistemic Marginalization of Women. London: Routledge, pp 89-106
Imafidon, Elvis (2015). In: Imafidon, Elvis, (ed.), The Ethics of Subjectivity: Perspectives since the Dawn of Modernity. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp 255-279
Imafidon, Elvis (2015). In: Imafidon, Elvis, (ed.), The Ethics of Subjectivity: Perspectives since the Dawn of Modernity. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp 1-10
