Augusta Atinuke Irele is a William Fontaine Fellow of Africana Studies and Comparative Literature & Literary Theory at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to beginning graduate study at Penn, Augusta worked as a youth worker and educator in Boston and New York, focusing on college access and student success.

She received her B.A. in Comparative Literature and French & Francophone Studies from Bryn Mawr College, where she was a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow and a Posse Scholar. On campus, she is a member of the Fontaine Coordinating Committee and serves as the Graduate Coordinator of Penn’s Mellon Mays program. She is interested in theories of cosmopolitanism, Afropolitanism, and Migritude. Her research explores the contemporary limits of Diaspora at the intersection of African-American and African literary studies and the new images of Africa that emerge in 21st novels and music.