Patience Otitoju is a doctoral research assistant on the RSSD project at the University of Ottawa. She holds an MA in Religious Studies from the University of Ottawa and a BA in Christian Studies from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. Patience is also affiliated with the Nonreligion in a Complex Future (NCF) project.

Her PhD research focuses on nonreligion and secularization in African and diasporic contexts, with particular emphasis on decolonial theory, colonial syncretism, and the intersections of religion, culture, and governance. Her work seeks to recognize, synthesize, and reorder African epistemologies and philosophies that have been historically sidelined by Western scholarly paradigms.

Across both her master’s and doctoral research, Patience develops new theoretical frameworks for understanding secularization, nonreligion, and political life on the African continent.