Oyèrónké Oyewùmí is a professor of sociology, gender, and Africana Studies at Stony Brook University. She won the Distinguished Africanist Prize of the African Studies Association in 2021. Each year, the African Studies Association presents the Distinguished Africanist Award to a member of the association who has made extraordinary contributions to the field.
In her academic research and writing, Oyewumi focuses on gender, race, Colonialism, knowledge, culture, and globalization. Her book The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses (1997) won the 1998 Distinguished Book Award in the Gender and Sex Section of the American Sociological Association and was a finalist for the Best Book Prize of the African Studies Association in the same year.

Oyewùmí was educated at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and the University of California at Berkeley. She is the author of two monographs and four anthologies. She has gained many research fellowships, including Rockefeller Fellowship, a Presidential fellowship, and a Ford Foundation grant. Her latest book is a co-edited anthology titled Naming Africans: On the Epistemic Value of African Names (Springer/Palgrave 2023).