Salmon Shomade

Dr. Salmon A. Shomade is an associate professor of Political Science. He grew up in Lagos, Nigeria and moved to the U.S. to pursue his undergraduate education at Clark Atlanta University (then Clark College) and Georgia Institute of Technology. After completing the dual degree engineering program at Clark (BS in General Science) and Georgia Tech (Bachelor of Civil Engineering), he worked as a Civil Engineer at the Connecticut Department of Transportation in New Haven, Connecticut, building roads and bridges.  Shomade later pursued his MBA with a concentration in Finance at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration and worked as a Financial Analyst afterwards at Conoco Inc. A few years after, Shomade enrolled at the University of Virginia School of Law wherein he obtained his JD degree. A member of New York, Texas, District of Columbia, and Georgia State Bars, Shomade practiced at a number of national law firms (including King and Spalding and Kilpatrick Townsend Stockton) all over the country. He eventually pursued his doctoral degree in Political Science/Public Administration at the University of Arizona where he obtained his PhD in 2007.

Shomade's two primary research areas/interests are judicial politics and African politics. He has a number of publications in judicial politics, most recently publishing Judicial Decision Making and Controversies in State Supreme Courts (Lexington Books, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield) in 2018. In addition, Shomade has been focusing on African politics and recently completed his book Colonial Legacies and the Rule of Law in Africa: Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe (Routledge, 2022).

Shomade initially joined the Emory Family as a visiting associate professor of Political Science. Shomade loves being a part of the Oxford College Family and enjoys working with students on various research topics in his scholarship areas and other areas of students' interests.  When Shomade is not researching, teaching, or advising his students, he runs long distance and comes up with his best research ideas while doing so.