About Me
Dr. Banjo
Dr. Banjo obtained her B.A. in Social Psychology and earned her Ph.D. in Mass Communication from Pennsylvania State University. As a McNair alum, she found a space to satiate her early curiosity and passion for sharing liberating knowledge--especially about identity.
Currently, she is a Professor of Communication at the University of Cincinnati, serves as an affiliate faculty of Africana Studies, and Women, Gender, & and Sexuality Studies as well as an Associate Dean of the Graduate College.
Born as a second- generation Nigerian-American, her research has explored how audiences interact with racial messages. She is a mixed-methods media effects scholar whose work centers on identity construction in ethnic and transnational creative content. Prof. Banjo has published on a diverse range of topics — using different methodologies from textual analysis of post-racial entertainment media to transnational audience reception research. Her work can be found in journals including the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Communication Theory, Journal of Media and Religion, and Race and Social Problems. Her teaching centers on developing media literacy skills and awareness.
Omotayo was awarded the College of Arts and Sciences Rising Star Award (University of Cincinnati) in 2017, a Fulbright scholarship (Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria) in 2019, and was endowed with a Niehoff Professorship (University of Cincinnati) in 2020. Dr. Banjo is co-founder of the entertainment consulting firm, Uncommon Eye. She is also the host of two podcasts, Unapologetically U.S and Neither Jew, Nor Greek.