Professor Jacob Olupona, a Nigerian scholar of African Traditional Religion at Harvard University, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honor society and policy research center.

Founded in 1780, the Academy recognizes individuals who have made exceptional contributions to their field and convenes leaders from various professions to work together on issues important to society. Members of the Academy include a range of international figures and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners.

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In its letter to Olupona, the Academy stated that his election signifies the high regard in which he is held by leaders in his field and members throughout the nation.

Olupona’s research focuses on the religious practices of the estimated one million Africans who have emigrated to the United States over the last 40 years, examining several populations that remain relatively invisible in the American religious landscape.

In his book “City of 201 Gods: Ilé-Ifè in Time, Space, and the Imagination”, Olupona examines the modern urban mixing of ritual, royalty, gender, class, and power, and how the structure, content, and meaning of religious beliefs and practices permeate daily life.

He received the Nigerian National Order of Merit, the prestigious award given each year for intellectual accomplishment in science, medicine, engineering/technology, and humanities, in 2007, and the Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion in 2018. Olupona will be formally inducted into the Academy on September 30, 2023.