By Abioye Tosin Lawrence
Professor Ilesanmi made the call on Thursday while delivering the 24th Inaugural Lecture of Redeemer’s University, Ede, titled “Vulnerability, Voice, and Valour: Navigating Transformative Frontiers in Gender, Humanitarianism, and Psychosocial Wellbeing.”
The professor of Gender and Humanitarianism argued that gender should no longer be treated as a peripheral consideration in development, governance, humanitarian intervention and social policy.
According to her, gender is structural and influences access to education, leadership, healthcare, safety, livelihood, voice and bodily autonomy.
She further maintained that humanitarianism should not be reduced to emergency relief alone, but should be understood as a broader moral, political and psychosocial framework for preserving human life, restoring dignity and rebuilding human capability in times of crisis.
At the heart of the lecture was what Prof. Ilesanmi described as the dangerous intersection between gender blindness and humanitarian crises.
She argued that when gender blindness meets crisis, marginalised groups tend to suffer disproportionately. Conversely, she said, scholarship that connects individual vulnerability with wider structural realities can transform professional practice and public policy.
Her proposition cuts across several fields, suggesting that clinical practice can inform public policy, counselling can strengthen governance, gender analysis can contribute to peacebuilding, family therapy can respond to the consequences of conflict, while universities can become sites of protection rather than institutions that reproduce inequality.
The lecturer situated the argument within her own intellectual journey, which, according to the lecture, moved from linguistic studies at the University of Ife through the clinical pathways of psychology and eventually into the complex terrain of global humanitarianism.
She said the journey had been driven by one enduring concern: the dignity of the vulnerable human person.
Drawing on the philosophical reflection associated with Søren Kierkegaard that life is understood backwards but lived forwards, Prof. Ilesanmi described an inaugural lecture as more than an academic ritual.
It is, she suggested, an opportunity for a scholar to look backwards at years of intellectual labour while asking a forward-looking question: what has been contributed, and what must society now confront?
The lecture therefore moved beyond the traditional celebration of an academic career to examine some of the urgent questions confronting vulnerable populations in contemporary society.
Prof. Ilesanmi's intervention places particular emphasis on voice and agency, suggesting that vulnerability should not be understood simply as weakness. Rather, vulnerable people must be recognised as human beings whose voices, experiences and capacities matter in shaping the solutions designed for them.
The lecture also highlighted the importance of psychosocial wellbeing in humanitarian responses, pointing to the need to address not only physical survival during crises but also dignity, mental and social wellbeing, family relationships and the capacity of individuals and communities to recover.
The 24th Inaugural Lecture attracted members of the university community, academics, students, guests from the gender and humanitarian sectors, family members, well-wishers and members of the press.
The lecture was held under the chairmanship of the Vice-Chancellor of Redeemer’s University, Professor Shadrach Olufemi Akindele, at the university auditorium in Ede.
For Prof. Ilesanmi, the message was ultimately both academic and humanistic: societies must learn to see vulnerability not as an isolated condition but as something shaped by structures, institutions, crises and unequal access to power.
And in that intersection between vulnerability, voice and valour, she offered a challenge to academia and policymakers alike that knowledge must not merely explain human suffering, but must help build systems capable of protecting human dignity.
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