KWASU to establish Centre for Wole Soyinka Studies
- nationalpilot
- Jul 6, 2015
- 2 min read
Kwara State University, Malete is to establish the Centre for Wole Soyinka Studies, the institution's Vice-Chancellor, Professor AbdulRasheed Na'Allah, has disclosed.
Na'Allah disclosed this at the Opening Ceremony of the Abiola Irele Seminar in Theory and Criticism, held at the University recently.
Pilot Education recalls that Nobel Laureate delivered the third convocation lecture of the university held on June 6, 2015.
According to Na'Allah, the development is in appreciation of the great impact of the Nobel Laureate in the academic world, adding that the Centre would house comprehensive documentation and digitisation of materials on Soyinka.
Speaking on the seminar named after the Nigerian doyen of 20th Century literary and cultural criticism, the Vice-Chancellor pointed out that the University established a School of Theory and Criticism in the doyen's name to facilitate the yearly organisation of the seminar.
He said this year's seminar was the maiden edition of the gathering having in attendance advanced graduate students, early to midcareer university and industry professionals in the Humanities, Arts, History, and Journalism, including Social and Management Sciences and related disciplines.
The Vice-Chancellor explained that the seminar would be led by scholars in Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, Management and allied fields, who would explore deeply, theoretical and critical themes of concern to the intellectual understanding of the world.
He described Professor Abiola Irele as one of the great minds in the nation that have changed theories, plotted new concepts and created new ideas towards understanding literature, adding that the seminar was in honour of his contributions to scholarship.
Professor Sakah Mahmud, the Coordinator to the Vice-Chancellor Academics in his remark, at the event, said the seminar was timely, especially as the University has just started post-graduate programmes.
Mahmud, who is also the Provost, College of Humanities, Management and Social Sciences, said the seminar was an avenue to promote knowledge, which he said was in tune with the University's vision of becoming a world-class institution.
“As an institution of higher learning, one cannot over-emphasise the need for the timely and very knowledgeable contributions like this. This is a beginning for us and we hope that this kind of seminars can also be extended to other disciplines.”
The Director KWASU Press and Pioneer Provost, College of Humanities, Management and Social Sciences Professor Abiola Irele, , expressed his immense gratitude to the University for recognising his contributions to scholarship and naming the seminar after him.
He said one of the goals of the seminar would be to truly intimate participants on the significance of the country in world literatures.
“One of the most prolific, one of the most interesting and significant literatures in the world today is the one that comes out of Nigeria: very few Nigerians are aware of that fact.”
The lead faculties of the seminar included the Director, School of Theory and Criticism, KWASU, Professor Adeleke Adeeko of the Ohio State University, Columbus, USA; Professor Moses Ochonu, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA; and, Professor Pius Adesanmi, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
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