The Professor in the Professor
Luchuo Engelbert Bain, MD, PhD
Convener, Global Health Otherwise.
In an era where academic titles are too often mistaken for intellectual authority, global health must pause to ask a difficult but necessary question: what does it truly mean to become a professor—and is the pursuit still worth it? When professorship risks becoming a performative milestone rather than a marker of intellectual responsibility, the answer is no—unless the title is earned through courage, humility, and sustained contribution. In the case of Seye Abimbola, the answer is unequivocally yes. His professorship affirms that the rank still matters when it follows deep thinking, ethical clarity, and a steadfast commitment to widening the space for ideas, voices, and accountability in global health.
Seye Abimbola’s scholarship is undeniably appetizing to younger generations—not because it simplifies knowledge, but because it dignifies the process of knowing. His work invites early-career scholars to rediscover scholarship as a space for thinking deeply, lingering with complexity, and treating reflection as a cornerstone of intellectual life rather than a luxury.
At a time when speed, productivity metrics, and performative outputs dominate academic culture, Abimbola’s writing and editorial leadership model something increasingly rare: the courage to think slowly, argue carefully, and remain intellectually convinced without becoming dogmatic. He demonstrates that rigorous scholarship is not antithetical to accessibility, and that clarity of thought is itself a form of respect for readers—especially those still learning how to think, not just what to cite.
A defining characteristic of Abimbola’s career has been his intellectual courage paired with intellectual humility. As the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of BMJ Global, he transformed the journal into a platform that centered voices historically marginalized in academic discourse. His editorial tenure was not merely administrative; it was transformative. He challenged the field to confront its colonial origins and recognize that knowledge production from the Global South represents not supplementary perspectives but foundational contributions to understanding health equity.
He faced sustained and often polarized opposition, yet consistently defended the journal as a forum where underrepresented voices could be heard, contested, and taken seriously. In doing so, he did not confuse platform with protection; disagreement was not silenced but invited—so long as it was argued honestly.
Crucially, Abimbola has demonstrated a systematic awareness of positionality. His openness about privilege has become an informal curriculum for many scholars from the Global South who themselves occupy relative advantage. He shows that privilege, when acknowledged rather than denied, can be mobilized to widen intellectual space rather than dominate it.
Without outsourcing responsibility or diluting accountability, he consistently reaffirms his grounding—Nigerian first—not as identity performance, but as an ethical anchor ensuring that global abstraction never erases lived reality. In this, Abimbola teaches a generation that courage in scholarship is not loudness, but fidelity to truth, context, and responsibility.
Seye’s trajectory from Nigerian health systems researcher to one of global health’s most influential thought leaders exemplifies scholarly leadership at its finest. His landmark publications, particularly “The Foreign Gaze: Authorship in Academic Global Health” and “The Uses of Knowledge in Global Health,” have become essential reading for scholars committed to understanding power dynamics in knowledge production. These essays are not comfortable texts. They function as critical mirrors, compelling us to examine whose knowledge we privilege, whose voices we amplify, and whose expertise we systematically overlook. Through analytical frameworks such as “professors, engineers, emancipators, and plumbers,” Seye illuminated how the field privileges certain epistemologies while devaluing the practical wisdom of practitioners closest to the communities we claim to serve.
What distinguishes Seye’s scholarship is its grounding in lived experience and historical consciousness. His formative years witnessing his mother’s midwifery practice, his experience addressing health inequities within Nigeria’s Ministry of Health, and his navigation of academic institutions across multiple continents have equipped him with a distinctive analytical lens. His work does not merely theorize decolonization; it enacts decolonial praxis through championing African publishing ecosystems, mentoring Global South scholars, and persistently interrogating who defines problems and designs solutions in global health.
This promotion to Full Professor at the University of Sydney acknowledges what many of us have long recognized: Seye Abimbola embodies exemplary academic leadership. He is intellectually fearless, morally grounded, and unwaveringly committed to justice. He teaches us that authentic scholarship transcends citation counts. It demands asking questions others avoid, creating space for voices, others silence, and building bridges between theoretical frameworks and the lived realities of marginalized communities.
A major limitation in the decolonization of global health discourse is its lack of theoretical depth and grounding, compounded by disciplinary exclusivism and, at times, knee-jerk scholarship. Seye Abimbola’s work is grounded on an unapologetic love for theory. His scholarship resists intellectual shortcuts, insisting instead on careful conceptual work, historical awareness, and rigorous argumentation. In doing so, he demonstrates that decolonizing global health is not merely a moral stance, but an intellectually demanding project that requires theory as much as conviction.
Congratulations, Professor Abimbola. This honor recognizes your contributions while positioning you to continue the vital work of helping global health become what it has always aspired to be: a field genuinely committed to equity, solidarity, and human dignity.