International graduate student earns prestigious fellowship

The reason Zainab Gidado came to Purdue University Fort Wayne from Nigeria is incredibly simple, yet so complex.

"If you want to change your country, you need to step out of it sometimes to see what the rest of the world is doing," Gidado said.

Gidado, M.S. '25, fully intends to return to Nigeria, but only after completing a third PFW year working on optional practical training and her doctorate in philosophy at another university.

Under the supervision of Steve Carr, professor of communication and director of the Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in the College of Liberal Arts, Gidado is focusing on genocide, violence prevention, social justice, human rights, and mass atrocities.

She recently received entry into the Charles E. Scheidt Faculty Fellows in Atrocity Prevention Program. Gidado is one of the few students represented in a cohort of 77 who hail from 68 colleges and universities around the world. They'll study online for the next year through the State College of New York-Binghamton University to design a curriculum they can teach, while also building a network among fellow participants across various disciplines.

During her time at PFW, Gidado has received the Spotlight Recognition Award from the National Communication Association as part of its network of graduate students active within the activism and social justice division. She also received the outstanding graduate student and outstanding graduate teaching assistant awards from the PFW Department of Communication.

Gidado said she'd been driven to study in the field since experiencing political and social unrest in Nigeria in 2020 and 2023. In 2020, Nigerians protested against police brutality, and in 2023, during the presidential elections, which included harassment and intimidation of voters.

"I saw what people around me went through, and that's how I even got interested in looking into violent acts generally," Gidado said. "I couldn't sleep sometimes because I kept hearing gunshots, and I had these thoughts about people who were being attacked. At a point, I felt ashamed of myself, because I knew this was not happening to me, but it was happening to others, and I needed to do something."

Maybe, Gidado said, her trauma was small compared to others, who were murdered or raped, but she still felt a responsibility to induce change.

"OK, if people don't have these opportunities, and I have these opportunities, then I should be able to speak up," Gidado said. "This was more about other people's pain, and I didn't know why or how, but it was really affecting me."

As Carr said, there is plenty of research focusing on the perpetrators or victims of organized violence, but not as much on bystanders. Gidado may be opening more unique areas of study.

"I've learned she has a tremendous capacity to not just get good at something, but to master it in terms of genocide prevention in Africa," Carr said. "She definitely has the capacity for real success."

The work at PFW provided Gidado the opportunity to participate at the United Nations as part of a Genocide and Human Rights Research in Africa and the Diaspora project. The research was into the 1972 Burundi massacre, which forms the foundation of her thesis.

After 2020, Gidado decided to volunteer for a nongovernmental organization to help provide medical support, food, and clothing to the disadvantaged. At the time, she was working in corporate marketing, but admitted she was bored. That's when the 2023 protests pushed her onto a new career path that included the important decision to study in America and at PFW.

"What stood out to me were the faculty members who had diverse areas of interest, and they had smaller class sizes," Gidado said. "There's this willingness to mentor students, and I decided this would be a good place for me to do the work I want to and my voice can be heard."

Giving Nigerians a voice and getting it heard throughout the world is Gidado's primary goal. What she had been through provided a clearer context of her goals and what she needs to do to be prepared when she returns home.

"I know my people, and having the knowledge I've gained from here is going to make a difference because I can bring a different perspective now," Gidado said. "I think I will be able to explain it better because I have seen it, I know it, in Nigeria, where I know how it works. I can make a difference.

"We have a lot of work to do, and I want to gain as much knowledge as possible. I have to make sure I am prepared, and it's necessary to be grounded, especially when you are going to a place like Africa. You want to make sure you know what you are doing before you start anything."