Wale Adebanwi was for many years a freelance-reporter, literary critic, writer, public affairs journalist and editor for many newspapers and magazines in Nigeria before he joined the Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria, as a teacher and researcher. A self-described "student of the agentic and structural dynamics of emergent social formations", Adebanwi, who got a doctoral degree from the university of Ibadan, does his research in the areas of political communication, identity politics, information technology and society, youth, state-civil society interface, citizenship and the politics of culture. He is a Fellow of the 21st century Trust (England), Claude Ake Memorial Scholar (Africa-America Institute, Washington, DC), African Youth in a Global Age Fellow (SSRC, New York) and Fellow of the Program of Ethnic and Federal Studies (University of Ibadan).

Some of his works include, "The Nigerian Press and the Idea of Nigerian Nation", in Toyin Falola (ed.), Nigeria in the Twentieth Century, Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academy Press, 2002, "The Nigeria Press and the National Question", in Abubakar Momoh and Said Adejumobi (eds.) The National Question in Nigeria: Comparative Perspectives, Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2002, "Rethinking Dissent: Public Intellectuals, Civic Space and Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria", Working Papers Series, No. 1., Trans-regional Center for Democratic Studies, New School University, New York, USA, 2000. "Inclusion Versus Exclusion: Explaining the Dilemmas of Citizenship in Nigeria", Paul Nkwi (ed), Citizenship in Africa (forthcoming), "Democracy and Violence: The Challenge of Communal Clashes", in Larry Diamond, Adigun Agbaje and Lanray Denzer (eds.), Nigeria and the Struggle for Democracy and Good Governance: A Festschrift for Oyeleye Oyediran (forthcoming), "Between Social and Liberal Democracy: Tanzania's 'Hovering' Democracy', in S. Saxena and Adekunle Amuwo (eds.) Africa's Experiment with Liberal Democracy (forthcoming), "The Press and the Politics of Marginal Voices: The Narratives of the Experiences of the Ogoni of Nigeria", Media, Culture and Society, UK (forthcoming).

He is currently on leave from the University of Ibadan as a Bill and Melinda Gates Scholar at the Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.