John Agbonifo was a Carson Fellow from August 2012 to September 2012 and from August 2013 to November 2013. His research and publications focus on environmental movements, environmental governance, development, and related topics. Agbonifo is a recipient of the Global South Scholar Fellowship from the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies (2011), and the Garnet Junior Mobility Fellowship, Warwick University (2009). Agbonifo is an assistant professor of sociology at Osun State University, Osogbo, Nigeria, where he teaches undergraduate courses in sociology of development, environmental politics, and social movements. He received his PhD from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in 2009, and he wrote his dissertation under the supervision of Professor Mohamed Salih.

Although trained as a social scientist, contact with the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC) in 2013, as a Rachel Carson fellow, marked a watershed in his career path. His fellowship stay at the RCC shaped his realization that social sciences’ concern with societal transformations constituted just a part of the puzzle of understanding reality. It became clearer to him that comprehensive understanding of societal change must inevitably engage with not only how society transforms the environment but also with how the environment in turn shapes society. The insight has substantially helped to restructure John’s book, Environment and Conflict: Place and the Logic of Collective Action in the Niger Delta, which is forthcoming with Routledge. In 2015, John founded the African Network of Environmental Humanities (ANEH) in an attempt to popularize environmental humanities in Africa.

In 2024, John Agbonifo joined the board of the International Consortium of Environmental History Organizations.