Nigerian PhD Student At Drexel University Earns Global Recognitions For Groundbreaking Research On Climate Change
Essien Oku Essien, a 26-year-old doctoral candidate in Communication at Drexel University, has earned international acclaim for his groundbreaking research at the intersection of climate communication and cultural studies. His work challenges dominant narratives surrounding climate change by integrating Indigenous knowledge systems and cultural perspectives from Africa and the Americas. Through this approach, Essien is reshaping global academic and policy dialogues on climate interpretation, resilience, and cosmology.
At the 17th International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses (2025, Florida International University), Essien received the prestigious Emerging Scholar Award for his critical study, Misrepresentations of Climate Change as Cultural Crises: The Case of Africa. The project critiques the marginalization of Indigenous spiritual and cultural interpretations in climate discourse, calling for more empirically grounded and culturally inclusive frameworks.
His influence extends globally. He was invited to present a guest lecture at the Federal University of Amazonas in Brazil and was selected as one of the top 25 Climate Leaders Fellows—a competitive program hosted by Faith For Our Planet (FFOP) and Duke University’s Divinity School—chosen from over 5,000 global applicants. His research on Indigenous frameworks in climate science was recognized for its intellectual depth and global relevance.
Essien is slated to lead a workshop at the 15th International Conference on Society and Environment at Sapienza University of Rome, exploring how visual culture and symbolic language shape spiritual narratives—a continuation of his broader research on climate change and Indigenous cosmologies.
In another significant milestone, he was awarded a Doctoral Summer Fellowship at the Swedish Centre for the Impacts of Climate Extremes (CLIMES), Uppsala University, honoring his interdisciplinary contributions to European climate scholarship.
His academic work also includes a strong focus on visual culture and semiotics. He recently led a team analysis of the 2024 Netflix film Mary, using Charles Sanders Peirce’s semiotic theory and color theory to study evolving archetypes—part of his broader investigation into how cultural symbols shape societal understanding of climate crises.
Essien’s ongoing ethnographic project, Class War: Indigenous Cosmological Interpretations of Climate Change and the Scientific Paradigm in Coastal West Africa, examines the friction and convergence between Indigenous worldviews and scientific climate models, advocating for epistemological diversity in climate science.
His book, Climate Models: The Politics of Theory Consumption, explores how media narratives, public policy, and class dynamics influence the reception and understanding of climate information, contributing vital insights into environmental literacy and climate denialism.
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Beyond academia, Essien is an active leader in sustainability education. As a trained Climate Leader with The Climate Reality Project and a specialist in Education and Climate Change (Inter-American Development Bank), he promotes environmental literacy and sustainable development across diverse communities.
Currently, he serves as President of the International Graduate Students Association at Drexel, championing the rights of global students. A passionate youth advocate, he has represented young voices at major forums such as the Global Youth Climate Summit, Global Landscapes Forum, International Youth Conference, and the World Bank Group Youth Summit.
In recognition of his scholarly and advocacy efforts, Essien was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in Communication and Climate Change by American Management University in 2025. He also ranks in the top 6% of over 2.18 million authors on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) by readership and citations and received Drexel University’s 2025 Research Excellence Award (Pre-Candidacy Category), affirming his status as a leading emerging scholar in climate and cultural communication.
