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Curriculum Vitae

 
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CURRICULUM VITAE

Name : Francis Abiola IRELE.

Marital Status : Married. Wife, Bassey Efiom Irele ( née Etim), with five children.

Citizenship: Nigerian; permanent resident in the USA .

Office Address:
Department of African and African American Studies
Harvard University
Barker Center, 2nd Floor
12 Quincy Street
Cambridge , MA 02138
Telephone: (617) 495 3799

Home Address:
157 Pleasant Street
Apt 309
Cambridge , MA 02139
Telephone: (617) 945 0416

Email :

irele@fas.harvard.edu

abiolairele@yahoo.com

EDUCATION AND DEGREES

November, 1966 : Doctorat de l'Université, University of Paris (Sorbonne), mention très honorable.

Title of Dissertation: "Les Origines de la Négritude à la Martinique: Sociologie de l'oeuvre poétique d'Aimé Césaire."

Supervisor: Professor Roger Bastide.

June, 1963: Certificat de Professeur de Français à l'Etranger, Ecole de Formation et de Perfectionnement des Professeurs de Français à l'Etranger, University of Paris. Reçu premier, mention honorable.

June, 1960: B.A., Honours English, University of London . (Degree awarded under special relationship with University College , Ibadan , now University of Ibadan , Nigeria ).

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Since July 1, 2003. Professor in Residence, Department of African and African American Studies, and Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.

Interim Chair, Committee on African Studies. 2005-2006.

Courses:

Freshman Seminar :

Utopia and Anti-Utopia. (Spring 2003, 2004, 2005)

African and African American Studies :

The Harlem Renaissance and the Negritude Movement (Fall 2003)
The African Novel (Spring 2004)
Black Utopias (Sophomore seminar, Fall. 2004)
Perspectives on the African Novel (Spring 2006)

Romance Languages and Literatures :

The Negritude Poets (Spring, 2003)
The African and Caribbean Novel in French: Comparative Perspectives (Fall 2006)

Core Course Program

The African Experience: Between Tradition and Modernity (Core Curriculum, Foreign Cultures). (Spring 2005 and Spring 2006).

Harvard Summer School

Utopia and Anti-Utopia (Summer 2004 and 2005)
The Harlem Renaissance (Summer, 2006)

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

October, 1989 – June 2003. Professor of African, French and Comparative Literature. (Joint appointment, Department of African American and African Studies and Division of Comparative Studies in the Humanities).

Research Associate, Center for African Studies.

Adjunct appointment in the Department of French and Italian.

Courses Taught (Selected) :

Department of African American and African Studies :

Undergraduate courses: "Studies in the African Novel" "Introduction to Black Literature"; "Introduction to African Literature"; "Pan-Africanism and African Nationalism"; "Philosophy and African Literature."

Graduate Courses: “Black Utopia: Diaspora Thought and African Renewal”; "Seminar on Black Authors.”

Division of Comparative Studies

Undergraduate courses: "Utopia and Anti-Utopia" (University Honors course); "American Identity in the World"; "The Experience of War Interpreted in Literature"; "Individual and Society in Literature"; "Psychological Themes in Literature"; "The Quest in World Literature"; “Literature and the Self.”

Graduate Seminars:

"The New Realism in African Fiction."

“Comparative Epic” (co-taught with Professor Bruce Heiden, Department of Greek and Latin.)

Department of French and Italian

Graduate seminars on Francophone African and Caribbean Literature (principally on the poetry of Aimé Césaire and Léopold Sédar Senghor).

Course Development

“Black Utopia: Diaspora Thought and African Renewal.” Department of African American and African Studies, Division of Comparative Studies).

“Literature and Modern Experience in Africa .” Honours course, Department of African American and African Studies.

“The Harlem Renaissance and the Negritude Movement” Department of African American and African Studies.

Ph. D supervision

Cilas Kemedjio, "Des théories de l'imaginaire aux imaginaries théoriques: la question théorique dans les littératures africaine et antillaise." February, 1995.

Kwasi Gyasi, "Writing as Translation: Translation and the Postcolonial Experience -- The Francophone African Text." December, 1995

Sana Camara: “La Poésie sénégalaise de langue française” (“Senegalese Poetry in French”). December, 2001.

M.A. supervision

Ernie Bond. “The Bildungsroman in African and Diaspora Literature”. Department of Black Studies, December, 1991.

Faith Mowoe: "The Role of Women in the Novels of Paule Marshall ." Department of Black Studies, June, 1992.

Mick Weems, "Brazilian Candomblé and the Legitimization of African Religion." Division of Comparative Studies. December, 1997.

Melanie Paris, “Repatriated Africans from Cuba and Brazil in Nineteenth Century Lagos .” Department of African American and African Studies, Spring, 1998.

Germina Neves: “The Republic of Cape Verde as Perceived Through its Art from Colonial to Post-colonial Times.” Department of African American and African Studies, Spring, 1998

Heather Dubois: “Magic Realism and the Postcolonial Novel.” (2000).

Ph.D and MA examining committees :

June, 1991: Pascal Kyore, "The Historical Novel in French-speaking Africa and the Caribbean ." (Ph.D., Department of French and Italian).

September 1994: Cheik Tidiane Gadio, "Institutional Reform of Telecommunication in Senegal , Mali and Ghana : The Interplay of Structural Adjustment and International Policy Decisions ." (Ph.D., Department of Communication).

October, 1995: Margarita Casado, "A la croisée des chemins: Ecriture et Identité mahgrébine. Etude du rôle de l'intertextualité à travers l'écriture de Rachid Boudjedra et Abdelwahab Meddeb." (Ph.D., Department of French and Italian).

May 1996: Antonia MacDonald-Smythe, ""Making Herself at Home in the West Indies: The Construction of Female Identity in the Writings of Michelle Cliff and Jamaica Kincaid." (Ph.D., Department of English).

November, 1998: Hanna Gotz: “Lusophone African real maravilloso: The Convergence between Latin American and Lusophone African Literatures.” (Ph.D., Department of Spanish and Portuguese)

December, 1998. Mary Wishard McDonald. (Ph.D Candidacy Examination, Department of English).

November, 2000. Thomas James Kitson: “Unity and Universalism : A Comparison of Vladimir Solov'ev and Svalovj Zizek as Critics of Nationalism and Ideology.” (M.A., Division of Comparative Studies).

UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN , NIGERIA .

1978-1989: Professor of French.

Head (Chair), Department of Modern Languages, October 1976 - September, 1979; and August, 1983 - July, 1987.

1972-1978: Senior Lecturer in French.

Courses at Undergraduate and Graduate levels on French literature (in particular Post-Romantic French poetry, from Baudelaire to the Symbolists) and French-speaking African and Caribbean Literature (Mongo Béti, Aimé Césaire, Birago Diop, Cheik Hamidou Kane, Léopold Sedar Senghor etc...)

Ph.D Supervision :

Femi Osofisan, "The Origins and Development of Modern West African Drama." (1974).

Olalere Oladitan, "The Theme of Violence in African Literature." (1976).

Tokunbo Gbadebo, "The Novels of René Maran." (1978).

Aduke Adebayo, "A Comparative Study of the Novels of Richard Wright and Sembène Ousmane." (1980).

Grace Arowolo. “A Structural Analysis of Amadou Hampaté Ba's L'Etrange destin de Wangrin. ” (1982).

Moradeun Adejunmobi,(1985) "Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo: A Critical Introduction."

UNIVERSITY OF IFE , NIGERIA (now Obafemi Awolowo University )

1970-1972: Senior Research Fellow, Institute of African Studies.

Courses on Yoruba Literature at the Institute of African Studies and Francpophone African Literature in the Department of Modern Languages.

UNIVERSITY OF GHANA , LEGON.

1967-1970: Research Fellow, Institute of African Studies.

Weekly Graduate seminar on African Literature; supervision of M.A.Theses. Undergraduate courses in Francophone African and Caribbean Literature in the Department of Modern Languages.

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION , UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS , NIGERIA

1966-1967: Lecturer in French; Concurrent appointment as Associate Lecturer, Department of English.

Courses on French Language and Literature, African Literature in English.

University Committees and Service:

University of Ghana :

Hall Tutor, Mensah Sarbah Hall, October, 1968 to December 1969.

University of Ife :

Co-director, (with Michael Crowder) of The Ife Festival of the Arts, December 1970.
Academic Planning Committee for the Yoruba Degree Programme, 1970-71.

University of Ibadan

Board of Studies, Faculty of Arts, 1972-73.

Curriculum Committee, Faculty of Arts, 1973-75.

Faculty Publications Committee, 1976-84; Chairman, 1980-84.

Faculty of Arts, Appointments and Promotions Committee, 1978-79.

Faculty of Arts Postgraduate Studies Committee, 1980-82 (Departmental representative).

Director, Audio-Visual Centre, Faculty of Arts, 1981-83.

Chairman, University Publications Committee, ( Ibadan University Press), 1984-85.

The Ohio State University :

Chair, Graduate Studies Committee, Department of Black Studies, 1989-91.

Research Grants Committee, College of Humanities , 1989-1991.

Chair, Ad-Hoc Library Committee, African and Afro-American Studies, 1990.

Chair, Search Committee for Professor of African History, 1990-91.

Promotions and Tenure Committee, College of Humanities, 1991, 1992, 1996-99.

Editor, Research in African Literatures . July, 1992-September 2003

Chair, Search Committee for Assistant/Associate Professor, African-American Women's Literature, 1992 and 1993.

Chair, Departmental Promotions Committee, Division of Comparative Studies (to consider cases of promotion to grade of Full Professor), 1995.

Convener, Annual Conference, African Literature Association, March 15-19, 1995, Ohio State University , Columbus , Ohio . Theme: "The Postcolonial Condition."

Search Committee, Woody Hayes Chair in History. 1997.

Chair, Search Committee, Comparative Studies, Assistant Professor, Global Studies, 1999/2000.

PUBLICATIONS, PAPERS, PRESENTATIONS .

I. Books, Monographs and Edited Volumes

Lectures Africaines : An Anthology of French African Prose . Edited with Introduction and Notes. London : Heinemann Educational Books, 1967.

Léopold Sédar Senghor: Selected Poems . Edited, with Introduction and Notes. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1977.

Drama in Africa . Co-edited with Oyin Ogunba. Ibadan : Ibadan University Press, 1978.

The African Experience in Literature and Ideology . London : Heinemann Educational Books, 1981; reprinted with new preface, Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1990. ix + 217 pp.

Panorama de la littérature négro-africaine des années 80 . Guest Editor , Special Number, Présence Africaine, No 139, 3e trimestre, 1986.

African Education and Identity : Edited Proceedings of the Fifth Session of the International Congress for African Studies. Oxf ord : Hans Zell Publishers and Ibadan : Spectrum Books, 1992.

Aimé Césaire: Cahier d'un retour au pays natal . Annotated edition, with Introduction, Commentary and Notes. Ibadan : New Horn Press Limited, 1994. lxix + 157 pp. Paperback edition, with New Preface: Columbus , OH : Ohio State University Press, 1999.

Contributing editor, The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces . Sixth Expanded Edition. Maynard Mack, Ed. New York : W.W. Norton and Company, 1995.

Volume I. The Epic of Son-Jara Presentation and Notes. pp 2335-88.

Volume II: Selection, presentation and annotation of the following:

Mariama Bâ: So Long a Letter . 2436-98.

Kamau Brathwaite. Selections from Mask. 2644-55.

Aimé Césaire: Notebook of a Return to the Native Land . 2217-49.

Birago Diop: Selections from Tales of Amadou Koumba , 2172-91

Lorna Goodison: Selections from the poetry. 2926-37.

Nadine Gordimer: "Oral Tradition" (short story). 2369-81.

Léopold Sédar Senghor: Selections from the poetry. 2191-2204

Wole Soyinka: Death and the King's Horseman . 2686-2738.

Derek Walcott: Dream on Monkey Mountain . 2597-2643.

Headnotes and Notes to selections of works by Bernard Dadié ( The Black Cloth). Naawal el Sadawi (“In Camera”} and Derek Walcott (Selections from the poetry), in Sally Lawal, (ed.), The Norton Anthology of World Literature.

Also, essays in Teaching with The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces Ed. Paula Bergen (on The Epic of Son-Jara , Birago Diop, Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Nadine Gordimer and Derek Walcott).

The African Imagination : Literature in Africa and The Black Diaspora. New York : Oxford University Press, 2001. xxiv + 285.

The Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature . Co-edited with Simon Gikandi. 2 volumes. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2004. xli + 906 pp.

Responsible for proposal and selection of contributors; apart from editorial work on the volume, contributed the following items:

Preface. xi-xx

Chapter 36 : The Harlem Renaissance and the Negritude Movement. pp 759-784

Haiti , 1804-2004: Literature, Culture and Art . Editor, Special Number, Research in African Literatures, Vol 35, No 2. Summer, 2004.

II. Articles, Essays, Chapters in Books.

(Note: items starred (*) are reprinted in The African Experience in Literature and Ideology. )

  1. "An Introduction to African Poetry in English." Africa . Hamburg, October, 1963.
  2. "Le Problème des langues en Afrique." Présence Africaine. Paris, No 47, 3e trimestre, 1963. Reprinted as "Thoughts on the Language Question in Africa," Présence Africaine (English version), 47 (18), Paris , 1967.
  3. "A Defence of Négritude." Transition, Kampala , No.13, May-June, 1964. pp 9-11.
  4. "The Tragic conflict in Achebe's Novels", Black Orpheus , Ibadan , Vol. 1, No. 17, 1965. Reprinted in Ulli Beier, (ed.) An Introduction to African Literature. London, 1967: Longmans, pp. 167-78; and in C.L. Innes & Bernth Lindfors, eds., Critical Perspectives on Chinua Achebe, Washington, D.C. : Three Continents Press, 1978, pp 10-21.
  5. "Negritude or Black Cultural Nationalism." Journal of Modern African Studies, Cambridge, Vol. 3, No. 3, 1965, 321-48. Reprinted in Bobbs-Merril Reprint Series, 1971, and in the following collective volumes: Martin Klein and G. Wesley Johnson (eds.), Perspectives on the African Past, Boston , 1972; Aubrey W. Bonnett and G. Llewellyn Watson, (eds) Emerging Perspectives on the Black Disapora. Lanham, MD, 1990: University Press of America . pp 263-84.
  6. "Negritude: Literature and Ideology. " Journal of Modern African Studies, Cambridge, Vol. 3, No. 4, 1965, 499-526. Reprinted in Bobbs-Merril Reprint Series, 1971 and in the following collective volumes: J. Middleton (ed.), Black Africa: its peoples and culture New York, 1970: Macmillan; Paul Baxter and Basil Sansom (eds.), Race and Social Difference, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1972.
  7. "An Approach to the Poetry of Aimé Césaire", in Ulli Beier op. cit., 1967. pp 59-68.
  8. "African Poetry of English Expression." Introduction, Nouvelle Somme de la Poésie Noire . Présence Africaine, Paris, No. 57, 1966, 263-65.
  9. "Postcolonial Negritude: Aimé Césaire's Political Plays." West Africa London, No 2643, January 27, 1968 . 100-101.
  10. "Africanisms in the New World ." Research Review. Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, Vol. 4, No. 2, March 1968.
  11. "The Teaching of Literature in the Vernacular Languages", in J.H. Birnie and G. Ansre (eds.), The Study of Ghanaian Languages. Tema: Ghana Publishing Corporation, 1969.
  12. "Léopold Sédar Senghor as Poet." Odu: A Journal of West African Studies. New Series, University of Ife, No.1, April, 1969, 3-27.
  13. "A New Mood in the African Novel." West Africa London, No 2729, September, 1970.
  14. *"Literature and Ideology in Martinique." Research Review Vol. 5, No.3, 1970, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon.
  15. "African Studies and Black Studies." Trends. Philadelphia, March, 1970.
  16. "Negritude Revisited." Odu: A Journal of West African Studies. New Series, No. 5, April, 1971. Rpt. in Paul Nursey-Bray (ed.) Aspects of Africa's Identity: Five Essays Kampala: Makerere Institute of Social Research, 1973.
  17. *"Pan-Africanism and African Nationalism." Odu, No. 6, University of Ife, October, 1971.
  18. *"The Criticism of Modern African Literature," in C. Heywood (ed.), Perspectives on African Literature. London, 1971: Heinemann Educational Books, 9-24.
  19. *"Négritude et `African Personality'." Colloque sur la Négritude. Paris : Présence Africaine, 1972, 151-68. (English version of paper in The African Experience in Literature and Ideology.}
  20. "Frantz Fanon Today." African Impact Benin City, Vol. II, Nos 27 and 28, April, 1972.
  21. *"Faith and Exile: Cheik Hamidou Kane and the Theme of Alienation." Le Français au Nigéria Vol 7, No 3, Ibadan, December, 1972.
  22. "The African Publisher." Introduction to Publishing in Nigeria. Benin City: Ethiope Publishing Corporation, 1973.
  23. "Papuan Parallels." Transition. Accra, No 44, May, 1974.
  24. *"The Season of a Mind: Wole Soyinka and the Nigerian Crisis." The Benin Review, Number One, Benin City, June, 1974, pp. 11-22.
  25. "Publishing and Education in Nigeria." Nigerian Libraries. Ibadan, Vol 10, Nos 2-3, 1974.
  26. *"Tradition and the Yoruba Writer: D.O. Fagunwa, Amos Tutuola, Wole Soyinka." Odu New Series, No. 11, January, 1975, 75-100.
  27. "The Ethiope Experience." (on Book Publishing in Nigeria ). African Book Publishing Record . Oxford, Vol 1, No 1, January, 1975.
  28. *"Studying African Literature." in Mineke Schipper (ed.), Text and Context in Africa. Special number of African Perspectives. No 1, Leiden: Afrikastudiecentrum, 1975.
  29. *"African Literature and the Language Question," in Le Critique africain et son peuple. Paris: Présence Africaine, 1977.
  30. *"What is Négritude?" Original title: "Négritude: The Philosophy of African Being." Nigeria Magazine Nos 122-123, Lagos, 1977 (Special Number on World Festival of Black and African Arts).
  31. "The Ozidi Saga." West Africa. London, No 3186, August, 1978.
  32. “Camara Laye: An Imagination Attuned to the Spiritual.” West Africa, London, Africa, April 7, 1980. 617-618.
  33. "Parables of the African Condition" Journal of African and Comparative Literature. Ibadan, No. 1, March 1981, pp. 69-91.
  34. "Contemporary Thought in French-speaking Africa", in Richard Bjornson and Isaac Mowoe, (eds.), Africa and the West Westport , CT.: Greenwood Press, 1986. 121-158. Reprinted, with "Concluding Remarks on Valentin Mudimbe" in Alfred Mosley (ed.) African Philosophy: Selected Readings . Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1995. 263-296.
  35. "The Noma Award and African Publishing." African Book Publishing Record .Oxford, Vol IX, Nos 2-3, October, 1983.
  36. Introduction to Paulin Hountondji, African Philosophy Myth or Reality London: Hutchinson, and Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1981; 7-30.
  37. "Les Obscures Espérances ou l'Imagerie de l'Oeuvre Poétique d'Aimé Césaire", in Jacqueline Leiner, (ed.), Soleil Eclaté Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 1984. pp 217-31.
  38. "Senghor Joins the `Immortals'", West Africa 8 April, 1984 . Reprinted in Kaye Whiteman (ed.) West Africa Over 75 Years. London: West Africa Publishing, 1993. 169-70.
  39. "Léopold Sédar Senghor at the French Academy." Ibadan Journal of Humanistic Studies, No. 3, Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan, June 1985. French translation in Almanach Africain Paris: Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique, 1983.
  40. “ Le monde s'effondre de Chinua Achebe: Structure et Signification," in Jacques Corzani and Alain Ricard, eds., Littérature africaine et Enseignement. Bordeaux: Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 1985, pp. 171-86.
  41. "Literary Criticism in the Nigerian Context", Guardian Literary Series, Nos 13, 14 & 15, The Guardian Lagos, June 1, 8 & 15, 1985. Reprinted in Yemi Ogunbiyi (ed.) Perspectives on Nigerian Literature. Vol.I, Lagos: Guardian Books, 1988.
  42. "Publishing for African Studies : an African Perspective," in Ilse Sternberg and Patricia M. Larby (eds) African Studies: British Library Occasional Papers, Vol 6, London: The British Library, 1986.
  43. "Structuralism and African Literature." The Guardian Lagos, March 1 and 8 1986. (Guardian Literary Series, Nos 45 and 46.)
  44. "The Significance of Wole Soyinka." The Guardian, Lagos, November 1, 1986 .
  45. "The Negritude Debate." in Albert Gérard (ed.) European Language Writing in Sub-Saharan Africa Vol 1. Budapest, 1986: Akademiai Kiado, pp 379-393. (Volume sponsored by the International Comparative Literature Association, in the series "A Comparative History of Literature in the European Languages").
  46. "The Challenge of University Publishing in Africa." in African Book Publishing Record Oxford, England, Vol. XII, No. 3, 1986. Reprinted in Philip G. Altbach (ed.), Readings on Publishing in Africa and the Third World. Buffalo, New York: Comparative Education Center, SUNY at Buffalo, 1993.
  47. "Les Royaumes de la colère, ou les voies de la révolte dans l'oeuvre poétique d'Aimé Césaire", in Aimé Césaire, Athanor d'un alchimiste: Actes du premier colloque international sur l'oeuvre littéraire d'Aimé Césaire. Paris: Editions Caribbéennes: Agence de coopération culturelle et technique, 1987. pp 63-86.
  48. "Wangrin: A Study in Ambiguity", Introduction to Amadou Hampaté Bâ, The Fortunes of Wangrin . (L'Etrange destin de Wangrin, Trans Aina Pavolini Taylor.) Ibadan: New Horn Press, 1987. pp. iii-xvi.
  49. "The Fiction of Ken Saro-Wiwa," Guardian Literary Series, Nos 78 and 79, The Guardian Lagos, January 17th and 24th, 1987. Reprinted in Yemi Ogunbiyi (ed.) Perspectives on Nigerian Literature. Vol.II, Lagos,: Guardian Booksm, 1988. pp 333-44. Reprinted in Abdul-Rasheed Na'Allah (ed.), Ogoni's Agonies: Ken Saro Wiwa and the Crisis in Nigeria . Trenton , N.J. : Africa World Press, 1998. 255-267.
  50. "Culture and the National Idea," African Philosophical Inquiry University of Ibadan, Vol.1, No.2, July, 1987, pp. 123-39.
  51. "In Praise of Alienation." An Inaugural Lecture, 22pp. Ibadan, 1987. Reprinted in V.Y. Mudimbe (ed.) The Surreptitious Speech: Présence Africaine and the Politics of Otherness. Chicago, 1992: Chicago University Press, pp. 201-224. French translation by Jeannine Laurent under the title "Eloge de l'aliénation," with presentation by Albert Gérard in Bulletin des Séances , Académie Royale des Sciences d'Outre-Mer, Vol 36. No 2, Brussels, 1991, pp. 169-184.
  52. "L'epopée dans la littérature africaine traditionelle." Présence Africaine . Paris, No 139. 1981. 185-91.
  53. "Education and Access to Modern Knowledge." Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, Mass.118, 1, (Winter, 1989). Reprinted in Francis X. Sutton, (ed.). A World To Make. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1990, pp 121-136.
  54. "Essential Landscape: Image and Symbol in the Poetry of Aimé Césaire." African Literature Today Vol. 16 (Special Number on Poetry). James Currey Publishers, London , 1989, pp. 142-57.
  55. "The African Imagination." Research in African Literatures. 21, 1,1990 .47-67.
  56. "Orality, Literacy and African Literature," in Janos Riesz and Alain Ricard (eds.), Semper Aliquid Novi: Papers in Honour of Albert Gérard Tübingen, 1989: Gunter Narr Verlag. 251-263.
  57. "Creative Pacesetter," (A Tribute to Chinua Achebe on his Sixtieth Birthday), West Africa , No 2992, 10-16 December, 1990.
  58. "The African Scholar," Transition. New York, No 51, Spring, 1991, 56-69.
  59. Introduction to John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo: Collected Poems and Plays. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1991, vii-l.
  60. "African Letters: The Making of a Tradition." The Yale Journal of Criticism. Vol 5, No 1, Fall, 1991.69-100.
  61. "Culture and the Arts," in Lloyd Thompson (ed.), Culture and Civilization. (General Studies Programme, University of Ibadan), Ibadan, 1991: Africa-Link Books, pp. 52-57.
  62. "The Crisis of Legitimacy in Africa ," Dissent Summer, 1992, pp. 296-302.
  63. "Dimensions of African Discourse." College Literature. Westchester, 19.3, October, 1992/20.1, February 1993 pp. 45-59. Reprinted in Kostas Myrsiades and Jerry McGuire,(eds}, Order and Partialities: Theory, Pedagogy and the "Postcolonial." Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995, pp. 15-34.
  64. "Narrative, History and the African Imagination." Narrative. Vol.I, No. 2. Spring, 1993. 156-72.
  65. "The Problems of African Publishing." Revue de Littérature Comparée (Tours, France), janvier-mars, 1993. 115-19.
  66. "Is African Music Possible?" Transition. New York, No 61. (February), 1994. 56-71.
  67. "The Return of the Native: Edward Kamau Brathwaite's Masks." World Literature Today. Vol. 68, No. 4, Autumn 1994. 719-25.
  68. Introduction to Femi Osofisan: The Oriki of a Grasshopper and Other Plays. Washington D.C.: Howard University Press, 1995. ix-xxxviii.
  69. "Léopold Sédar Senghor" in Brian Cox, (ed.), African Writers. New York: Scribners, 1996. 775-789.
  70. "African Literature: Past, Present and Future." Kaye Whiteman, ed., The African Future, Special 80th Aniversary issue of West Africa London, April, 1997. 29-30.
  71. "Négritude." In John Middleton, (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara . New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998. 278-86. Reprinted in Nero, Special Number of Athanor. Susan Petrilli, Ed. Vol. 10, No 1. 1998. 25-29.
  72. "African Philosophy: Francophone." Edward Craig (ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London, 1998: Routledge. Vol. 1, pp. 108-117
  73. (a) "Paulin Hountondji” In Robert L. Arrington (ed.), A Companion to the Philosophers. Oxford , UK: Blackwell, 1999, pp 27-30 (b)."Léopold Sédar Senghor” in same volume, pp 30-33.
  74. “African Literature: Francophone.” Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Kwame Anthony Appiah, (eds.), Encarta Africana. CD-ROM by Microsoft Corporation. (Book version in production).
  75. Culture and Democracy in the Republic of Benin. Report of A Mission. Paris: UNESCO, 1999. (Restricted circulation).
  76. Introduction to Amadou Hampaté Bâ, The Fortunes of Wangrin. Revised edition of English translation by Aina Taylor. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000. vii-xv.
  77. "Second Language Literatures: An African Perspective” in Christiane Fioupou, ed., Thresholds: Anglophone African Literature/ Seuils: Les littératures africaines anglophones. Special Number of Anglophonia/Caliban, French Journal of English Studies. No 7, 2000. Presses Universitaires de Toulouse-Mirail. 7-22.
  78. “Toward Reconstruction in Africa .” Africanist Scholar/Africahome.com. http://www.africahome.com/scholar/stories/irele_reconstruct.shtml (currently under construction)
  79. Foreword to Luis J. Munoz, The Roots of the West: An Introduction to the European Cultural Tradition. Ibadan: Bookcraft Ltd, 2001. 7-10.
  80. "Réflexions sur la Négritude." Ethiopiques. No 69 , Hommage à L.S. Senghor. 2eme semestre, 2002. 83-106
  81. “Artistic Creation in Post-Independence Africa.” In Afro-Optimism. Edited by Ebere Onwudiwe and Minabere Ibelema. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. 39-51
  82. “Niyi Osundare : Between Self and Commitment.” Preface to The People's Poet: Emerging Perspectives on Niyi Osundare. Edited by Abdul-Rasheed Na'Allah. Trenton: Africa World Press, 2003. xvii-xxii.
  83. “Philosophy and the Postcolonial Condition in Africa.” Review essay on Paulin Hountondji, The Struggle for Meaning. Research in African Literatures, Vol 35, No 4, Winter, 2004. 160-170
  84. “Westernization: Africa.” Entry, The New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, pp00-00
  85. Preface, Images of Congo : Anne Eisner's Art and Ethnography. Ed. Christie McDonald. Milan: Continents, 2005. 9-10
  86. “Jean-Godefroy Bidima.” Entry, Encyclopedia Africana, edited by Henry Louis Gates and Kwame Anthony Appiah. 2nd Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp 456-457.
  87. Foreword to Wole Soyinka, The Invention and The Detainee. Zodwa Motsa (ed.). Pretoria: UNISA Press, 2005. ix-xi.
  88. “`What is Africa to Me?': Africa in the Black Diaspora Imagination.” Souls, Special Number, “Critical Perspectives on W.E.B. Du Bois.” Volume 7, Numbers 3-4, Summer/Fall, 2005. pp. 26-46.
  89. “The Achievement of Wole Soyinka.” Soyinka Journal, (The Journal of the Wole Soyinka Society). Vol. 1, No. 1, August, 2005. 8-17.
  90. “In Search of Camara Laye.” Textual Ownership in Francophone Africa. Special Number, Research in African Literatures. Ed. by Alec Hargreaves. Vol 37, No 1. Spring, 2006. 110-127.
  91. “Ezeulu as World Historical Figure.” In Isidore Diala, Ed., The ResponsibleCritic. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2006. 97-111.
  92. “La Puissance du Verbe” La Puissance du Verbe / The Power of The Word. Edited Tim Cribb. London: Collier. 2006 .
  93. Foreword to Veronique Tadjo, Red Earth. English translation of Laterites by Peter Thompson. Spokane, WA: Eastern Washington University  Press. 2006. pp??

III. NOTES AND REVIEWS

Principally in the following journals:

Africa, ( Paris ); African Commentary ( Massachusetts); African Literature Today (London ); Africa Report ( New York ); Black Issues ( USA), Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge ); Journal of the Nigerian Historical Society ( University of Lagos ); Okyeame ( University of Ghana, Accra ); Présence Africaine ( Paris); Research in African Literatures ( Texas) ; Transition ( Kampala and Accra ); West Africa (London).

See in particular:

“Happenings in the Mind .” Review of The Crossing by Alain Albert. Transition , No. 21. (1965), p. 53.

Recent Notes and Reviews:

“The Landscape of African Music.” Editorial, Research in African Literatures, 32, 2, Summer 2001. 1-2

Monsieur de Saint George: Le Nègre des Lumières by Alain Guédé. Review in Research in African Literatures. 32, 2, Summer, 2001. 225-26.

“Chinua Achebe at Seventy: Homage to Chinua Achebe.” Research in African Literatures. 32, 3. Fall 2001. 1-2.

A Force More Powerful : A Century of Nonviolent Conflict By Peter Ackerman and Jack Du Vall. Review, The Times Higher Education Supplement , No 1506, September 28, 2001 , p.34

“The Last Words of Mongo Beti.” Review of Mongo Beti Parle by Ambroise Kom. Research in African Literatures , Vol 33, No 2, Summer 2002, 4-8

Review of Black Paris by Bennetta Jules-Rosette. The Journal of African History , London . Vol 43, No 2 (2002), 365-7.

Review of, Nation Building , Propaganda and Literature in Francophone Africa by Dominic Thomas. Research in African Literatures Vol 34, No 3, Fall 2003. 1 77-179.

Review of Forms of Protest: Anti-Colonialism and Avant-Gardes in Africa, the Caribbean, and France , by Phyllis Taoua. Research in African Literatures, Vol 35, No 3. Fall, 2004. 180-82.

Review of Les intellectuels africains en France by Abdoulaye Guèye. Journal of African History , Vol. 45, Issue 3, November, 2004. 519-21

IV. COMPLETED/FORTHCOMING

“Slavery and the African Imagination” Review Essay, Ifeoma Kiddeo Nwankwo. Black Cosmopolitanism: Racial Consciousness and Transnational Identity in the Nineteenth Century Americas . Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press and Adeleke Adeeko. The Slave's Rebellion. Literature, History, Orature. Bloomington , IN : Indiana University Press. Du Bois Review , Volume 3, no. 2, 2006 (page numbers TBD).

Foreword to Bode Omojola, C omposing Without Borders:  Western Forms, African Identity and Black Diaspora Themes in the Music of Fela Sowande . Point Richmond , CA : Music Research Institute. 2006.

The Negritude Idea: Explorations in Francophone African and Caribbean Literature and Thought. Trenton , NJ : Africa World Press.

Négritude et Condition Africaine . Paris : Editions Karthala.

A Companion to the African Novel. Collective volume ed. Irele. With Preface and Introductory Essay. Cambridge University Press. Publication projected for Spring, 2007.

V . WORK IN PROGRESS .

Encyclopedia of African Thought. Co-edited with Biodun Jeyifo. Oxford University Press.

Black Utopias: Diaspora Thought and The African Renaissance. Cambridge University Press.

CONFERENCES ATTENDED (selected, with titles of papers presented)

March 1967: Conference of Afro-Asian Writers, Beirut . "Literature and the Nigerian Experience".

December 1967: Second International Congress of Africanists, Dakar . "Literature and Society in Africa ".

May 1968: Conference on the Study of Ghanaian Languages, University of Ghana , Legon. "The Teaching of Literature in the Vernacular Languages".

December 1968: Conference on African Writing in English, University of Ife , Ile-Ife; "The Criticism of Modern African Literature".

April 1969: Conference on "The Meaning of Africa to Afro-Americans," State University of New York at Buffalo . "Literature and Ideology in Martinique ".

December 1969: Seminar on Yoruba Language and Literature, University of Ife , Ile-Ife. "Tradition and the Yoruba Writer: D.O.Fagunwa, Amos Tutuola and Wole Soyinka".

February 1970: Seminar on "Political Ideology in Africa," African Studies Centre, Edinburgh University ; "The Theory of Négritude".

April 1971: Colloque sur la Négritude, Dakar; "Négritude et `African Personality' " English version presented as "Negritude and African Personality" at Inaugural Conference, Nigerian Society for International Affairs, Univerdity of Ibadan, September 1971.

April 1973: Conference on "Le Critique africain et son peuple," Yaoundé ( Cameroons ): "African Literature and the Language Question".

April 1975: Conference on African Literature, University of Mainz ; "The New Realism in African Literature".

September 1976: Conference on "Text and Context in Africa," Afrika Studiecentrum, Leiden ; "Studying African Literature".

October 1978: 50th Anniversary Symposium of the Académie Royale des Sciences d'Outre-Mer of Belgium on "The Human, Scientific and Technical Aspects of Development"; "Literature and Development in Contemporary Africa".

September 1980: Conference on "African Cultural and Intellectual Leaders," Rockefeller International Centre, Bellagio ( Italy ); "Contemporary Thought in French-speaking Africa ".

July 1982: Troisième Rencontre Mondiale des Départements d'Etudes Françaises, under the auspices of AUPELF. Lomé, Togo; "Problèmes de l'Enseignement du Français au Nigéria".

March, 1984: Colloque International, "Littératures Africaines et Enseignement," University of Bordeaux III, June, 1985. " Le monde s'effondre de Chinua Achebe: Structure et Signification".

September, 1985: Seminar on African Literature, University of Bayreuth. "Chinua Achebe and African Identity."

October 1985: Conference on "L'Islam et la littérature africaine," Association pour l'étude de la littérature africaine (APELA), Paris. "Sur Hampaté Bâ".

November 1985: Conference on "Aimé Césaire: Athanor de la culture," Association du Livre Caraïbe, Paris. "Les royaumes de la colère ou les voies de la révolte dans la poésie d'Aimé Césaire".

December, 1985: International Congress of African Studies, Fifth Session, University of Ibadan . Panel speaker, "African Education."

April 1986: African Literature Association, Annual Meeting, Michigan State University , East Lansing . "Wangrin: A Study in Ambiguity".

March, 1987: African Literature Association, Annual Conference, Cornell University ; Panel Speaker on theme, "Literature and Development."

February 1988: Area Bay Conference on African Literature, Stanford University . Keynote Address, "The African Imagination."

April, 1988: Annual Conference, African Literature Association, University of Pittsburgh . "African Literature and Literary Theory."

May 1988: Symposium on "Africa in the 1990's and Beyond," The Ohio State University , Columbus , Ohio . Presentation of Valentin Mudimbe's The Invention of Africa .

May, 1988: Colloquium on Development, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge , MA ; "Education and Access to Modern Knowledge."

October, 1989: African Studies Association Annual Conference, Atlanta . Discussant, Panel on V.Y. Mudimbe's The Invention of Africa .

April, 1990: Conference on "Tradition and Transition in African Letters," Yale University . Keynote Address: "African Letters: The Making of A Tradition."

October, 1990: Conference on "Politique Africaine," University of Bordeaux . Panel Speaker on Politics and African Arts.

December 1990: MLA Annual Conference, Chicago. "Dimensions of African Discourse."

March, 1991: African Literature Association Annual Conference, New Orleans . Presidential Address. "African Literature in the Western Academy ."

June, 1991: International Conference on Narrative, Nice; Keynote Paper. "Narrative and African Literature."

November, 1991: African Studies Association Annual Conference, St Louis , Missouri . "The New Realism in African Fiction: Kofi Awoonor's This Earth, My Brother .

February 1992: Conference on "African Americans in France," Université de Paris IV. Chaired Panel on "Negritude and African Americans."

February, 1992: UNESCO Symposium on "The Main Aspects of Fictional and Poetic Creation in African Literature on the Threshold of the Third Millenium," Harare . Background Paper, "Literature and Modern Experience in Africa."

November, 1992: Annual Symposium in the Humanities, Ohio State University on "The Black Diaspora: The African Experience in the Americas ". "The Return of the Native: Edward Kamau Brathwaite's Masks."

April, 1993: Annual conference, African Literature Association, Guadeloupe : Chaired Special Session, "Homage to Aimé Césaire," to mark the poet's 80th Birthday.

March 1995: Annual Conference, African Literature Association, Columbus , Ohio . Chaired Panel on "The Black Atlantic ."

July, 1995: Biennial Conference, African Language Association of South Africa , Stellenbosch , South Africa . Keynote Address: "The Significance of African Literature."

October 1995: Conference on "Consciousness of Africa in the Diaspora." Central State University , Wilberforce , Ohio . "From The Harlem Renaissance to the Negritude Movement."

April 11-13, 1996. "The African Diaspora: African Origins and New World Self-Fashioning." Binghamton University. "The Black Utopia”

October 18-22, 1996: Colloquium in Honour of the 90th Anniversary of Léopold Sédar Senghor, UNESCO, Paris. "The Significance of Léopold Sédar Senghor."

January 1997: Conference on “Africa, Pan Africanism and the New World Order, ” University of Georgia , Athens , GA. "Black Utopia: Diaspora Thought and African Renewal."

December 3-5, 1997. Colloquium to mark 50th Anniversary of Présence Africaine, UNESCO, Paris. "Pensée et Histoire: Réflexions sur les Mouvements Intellectuels en Afrique Francophone.”

February, 26-28, 1998: Conference on “Africa in the 21st Century University” University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, (Canada). Keynote Address, “Toward Reconstruction in Africa.”

February, 1999. “Thresholds: Anglophone African Literatures.” Université de Toulouse Le Mirail.; Opening Address, “Second Language Literatures: An African Perspective.”

May 15, 1999: Conference on African Readerships. Robinson College, Cambridge. General Introduction of Conference Theme.

October 1999 Conference on “African Pianism.” Department of Music, University of Pittsburgh .

November, 1999. Annual Conference, African Studies Association (ASA), Philadelphia. Chair, Panel on “The Legacy of Amadou Hampaté Bâ.”

March, 2000. Annual Conference, African Literature Association. Lawrence, Kansas. Chair, Plenary Session, “African Literature and Criticism: Enduring Themes and New Directions.”

April, 2000. Central State University, Wilberforce. Ohio . Conference on “The Black Atlantic.” Keynote address: “African Studies and the Black Atlantic.”

August, 2000. XVIth Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association, Pretoria. “The Domestication of Western Thought in Africa.”

November, 17-19, 2000: Millenium Symposium, “The Power of the Word / La Puissance du Verbe.” Churchill College, University of Cambridge .

November 7-9, 2001. UNESCO Conference, African Development. Paris , France. Discussant, Panel on African Education.

December 6-7, 2001. Organiser, Mellon Symposium, “The Postcolonial: Literature and Theory in Africa and the African Diaspora.” Tulane University, New Orleans .

March 28-29, 2002: Ecole des Hautes Etudes des Sciences Sociales, Paris. “Enjeux Littéraires et Construction d'Espaces Démocratiques en Afrique.” Paper on “The Political Imagination in Africa.”

Summer Workshop, K-12 Teachers, June 2002 Ohio State University.
Theme: Teaching Africa Through Literature.

February 2003. Department of French and Francophone Studies, UCLA. “ Africans in France in the Sixties.”

March 2003. University Distinguished Lecture, Ohio State University. “What is Africa To Me: Africa in the Black Diaspora Imagination.”

17-19 September, 2003. Humanities Symposium, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. “Leopold Sedar Senghor.”

October, 22-24, 2004. Textual Ownership in Francophone African Literature. Winthrop-King Institute for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida. “In Search of Camara Laye.”

November, 2004. Annual Conference, African Studies Association (ASA), New Orleans. Panel on Aimé Césaire.

December, 2004. African American and Diasporic Research in Europe: Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approaches. Sorbonne, Paris. “French Intellectuals and Africa .”

April 2005: “Sartre the African.” Sartre Centenary Conference, Department of Romance Languages and Literature, Harvard University .

August 7, 2005.Symposium on Intercultural Music, Churchill College, Cambridge. “Music and the African Imagination.”

November 20, 2005. Panel Chair, “The Political Imagination in Africa and the Diaspora.”

May, 2006. Annual Conference, African Literature Association, Accra, Ghana. Chair, Panel, “W.E.B. Du Bois: A Celebration.”

Pending

INVITED LECTURES AND PRESENTATIONS (Selected)

November 1975: Faculté de Droit, Université du Dahomey, Cotonou. "Actualité de la Négritude."

March 1975: One-week lecture visit, Department of Literature, University of Nairobi, Kenya. Lectures on various aspects of African literature.

May 1976 : Two-week lecture visit to the three campuses of the University of the West Indies at St. Augustine (Trinidad), Cave Hill ( Barbados ) and Mona ( Jamaica ). Lectures on the poetry of Christopher Okigbo, the plays of Wole Soyinka and the Negritude movement.

February 1979: Two-week lecture visit to Universities of Paris III and Paris IV, and to the University of Bordeaux . Lectures on African Literature and Intellectual Movements.

March, 1986: "African Oral Literature." The Ohio State University; lecture repeated at the University of Amsterdam, April, 1986.

April, 1987: Lecture Visit, Syracuse University; Lectures on Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe.

February 1988: Cornell University, Department of Romance Studies; "The French Language and the Black Experience."

March 1988: One week lecture visit, University of Oklahoma, Norman. Lectures on Soyinka, Aimé Césaire and the Négritude Movement.

February, 1989: African Studies Center, Indiana University, Bloomington; "Wole Soyinka and Nigerian Drama."

March, 1989: Three-day lecture visit, University of Kansas, Lawrence; lectures on The African Novel and Intellectual Movements in French-speaking Africa.

April, 1989: Amherst College, Amherst; "Black Intertextuality: African and Afro-American Literatures in Historical Perspective."

October, 1989: Commemorative Lectures, Noma Award 10th Anniversary: "The African Contribution to World Literature" (Tokyo); "Contemporary Trends in African Literature” (Kyoto). Lectures sponsored by Kodansha International Publishers, Japan .

February, 1990: Center for African Studies, Rutgers University, Newark "African Oral Literature."

May, 1990: "The African Scholar." Inaugural Lecture (as Professor of African, French and Comparative Literature), Ohio State University .

October, 1991: Department of Anthropology/African Studies Program, University of Chicago. "African Literature."

March, 1992: Three-day Faculty Seminar, Otterbein College, Ohio, on African and Caribbean Literature. (Seminar sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities.)

February, 1993: Dartmouth College, Department of Comparative Literature; "Narrative in African Literature."

March, 1993: Keynote Lecture, "African Literature and African Studies." Southeastern Regional Seminar in African Studies, Bennet College, Greensboro, North Carolina .

May 1993: Faculty Workshop, Center for Islamic Civilization, Washington University, St Louis, Missouri. Lectures on Islam in Modern African Literature (Programme sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities).

February 1994: Lecture Visit, University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, San Jose State University, California State University. "The Postmodern Turn in French-African Thought."

November, 1994: Golz Memorial Lecture, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine. "The Significance of African Literature."

December, 1994: The Winthrop Rockefeller Distinguished Lecture Series, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. “African Literature and the Western Academy ."

March, 1995: Center for African Studies, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. "Alienation and The Postcolonial Condition in Africa."

February, 1996: New York University, Maison Française: "Léopold Sédar Senghor: A Revaluation."

October, 1996: Albright College, Reading, Pennsylvania. "Literature and Modern Experience in Africa."

March, 1997: Elon College, North Carolina."Chinua Achebe and the Colonial Encounter."

April, 1997: Austin Peay State University. “African Literature Today.”

February, 1998: Department of French, Northwestern University. Graduate Seminar, “Negritude, Antillanité, Créolité.”

March, 1999: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. “Second Language Literatures: An African Perspective.”

April 1999. Institute for the Philosophy of Language, University of Bari, Italy. Lectures i. “The International Context of African Literature” ii. “The Negritude Movement.”

May, 1999. Universita degli Studi di Milano, Institute of Foreign Languages. “Literature and Politics in Contemporary Africa .”

May 17, 1999: Centre for African Studies, University of Cambridge Seminar Series. "The Future of Nigeria ."

October. 1999: Centre for African Studies, Ohio State University. “Second Language Literatures: An African Perspective.”

March, 2000: Rice University, Houston, Texas. Department of French Studies and Centre for the Study of Cultures. “Literature and Philosophy in Francophone Africa.”

April, 2000. Miami University of Ohio, Department of French. “African Literature: The Problem of Authenticity.”

August, 2000: Seminar, Department of English, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. “Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.”

January, 2001. University of Leiden, Holland. “The Political Imagination in Africa.”

April 1, 2001. “The Postcolonial.” Kenyon Cellege, Gambier, Ohio .

April, 18,19, and 20, 2001: The McMillan-Stewart Lectures series, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University . “The Black Utopia: Diaspora Thought and African Renewal.”

August 17, 2001. Seminar, Department of Philosophy, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. “Three Sources of African Philosophy.”

August 20, 2001. “The Necessity of an African Modernity,” Keynote address, I nternational Symposium on “Black and African Cultures and The Challenges of Globalisation. ” Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization. Lagos, Nigeria.

December 4, 2002: “ ‘What is Africa to Me: Africa in the Black Diaspora Imagination.” Andrew Mellon Lecture, Tulane University .

March, 2002. Department of Romance Languages and the Du Bois Center, Harvard University. “The Harlem Renaissance and the Negritude Movement.”

February 2003. College St Augustin, Quebec. “:Reflexions sur la Negritude.”

March 8, 2004. “The Achievement of Wole Soyinka” Keynote Address, Wole Soyinka Festival, School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London .

March 12-13, 2004. “Lemuel Johnson as Poet.” Symposium on The Life and Works of Lemuel Johnson, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

March April 3, 2004 “Anglophones, Francophones and Lusophones: Reflections on the Language Question in Africa.” Keynote address, 35 th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, Harvard University .

September 8, 2004. “Chinua Achebe and the Muse of History: An Approach to Arrow of God .” First Bloke Modisane Memorial Lecture, Centre for African Literary Studies, University of Kwa-Zulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.

December 12, 2004. Centre Africain des Hautes Etudes, Porto Novo, Benin Republic. “Philosophie et situation postcoloniale en Afrique.”

April 5, 2005: Keynote Address, Annual Conference, African Literature Association, Boulder, Colorado. “What is African Literature?”

April 15-16, 2005: Sartre Centenary Conference, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University. “Sartre the African.”

August 4-6, 2005. Conference “Wole Soyinka Across Borders.” University of South Africa, Pretoria. Keynote Address: “Wole Soyinka as Cultural Theorist.”

August 10-12, 2005. Symposium on Inter-Cultural Music, Churchill College, Cambridge. “Music and the African Imagination”.

September 9-12, 2006. 50 th Anniversary, Conference of Black Writers and Artists, Paris. Homage to Aimé Césaire.

September 31. Seminar, English Faculty, University of Cambridge. Keynote Address: “English and the Colonial Subject.”

October, 2006. Annual Conference, African Studies Association. Chair, Panel on “The Political Imagination in Africa.”

October 26, 2006. Senghor Colloquium, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados. Keynote Address, “Senghor The Ancestor.”

December 7-9, 2006. Second Conference on African Music, Princeton University. “The Landscape of African Music.”

January 17, 2007. World Literature Lecture, Auburn University. “The Significance of African Literature.” (Lecture sponsored by W.W. Norton and Co)

February 21, 2007. “History and Literature: An African Perspective.” Center for African Studies, Yale University .

March 1, 2007. “René Maran: The Precursor.” Washington University, St Louis, Missouri.

March 16, 2007. “The Caribbean Writer and the African Renaissance.” Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge .

FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS

June-October, 1963: Rockefeller Foundation: Grant as Visiting Lecturer, Department of English, University of East Africa, Dar-es-Salaam (now University of Dar-es-Salaam ).

1970-1980: Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship; as Visiting Professor, Département d'Anglais and Département des Lettres Modernes, University of Dakar, Senegal.

August-September, 1989: Resident Scholar, Rockefeller Study Center, Bellagio.

1991-92: Ohio State University Seed Grant for Research Project on "Contemporary Thought in French-speaking Africa."

July-August, 1993: National Endowment for the Humanities. Grant awarded for Summer Institute on "Literature and Modern Experience in Africa" held at Ohio State University .

July-August, 1996: Grant awarded for repeat of 1993 seminar on the same theme at the University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.

March, 1997: Honors School, Ohio State University: Course Development, “Literature and The African Experience.”

January 1 to December 31, 1999. National Endowment for the Humanities. Fellowship for University Professors, for research project on "Contemporary Thought in French-speaking Africa South of the Sahara."

August 2000-July 2002. National Endowment for the Humanities Grant for project on “Southern African Praise Poetry.” (First phase of the field work in Republic of South Africa and Lesotho completed summer, 2000; second phase, with focus on Shaka Day celebrations in Zululand, summer 2001)

VISITING APPOINTMENTS

1983-1987: Professeur Missionnaire, Centre de Recherche et d'Enseignement des Langues, Lomé, Togo. Lectures on French and African Literature in French at Summer School for Teachers of French in English-speaking West Africa.

1979-80: Visiting Professor, Département d'Anglais and Département des Lettres Modernes, University of Dakar, Senegal. Seminar on African Poetry in English, with special focus on the work of Christopher Okiogbo; Courses on African Literature in French.

March 1983: Visiting Professor, Départment d'Anglais, Université d'Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Graduate seminar on the African Novel.

October 1987 - June 1989: Visiting Professor, Center for Comparative Studies in the Humanities and Department of Black Studies, Ohio State University. Graduate Courses on “The New Realism in African Fiction,” “Pan Africanism and African Nationalism”; Seminar on African Literature.

February 1998: Visiting Professor, Center for Francophone Studies, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. Seminar on Francophone African Novel and cinema; Public Lecture, “Francophone African and Caribbean Intellectual Movements.”

Visiting Overseas Fellow, Churchill College, University of Cambridge. Tenure during Lent and Easter terms, 1999. Lectures on Francophone African Literature in the Faculty of Languages, and Seminar on Commonwealth Literature, Faculty of English.

Andrew Mellon Visiting Professor, Tulane University , Fall Semester, 2001. Undergraduste honors course, The African Novel. Mellon Seminar on “The Postcolonial Condition.”

Visiting Professor, Harvard University, Department of Afro-American Studies and Department of Romance Languages, Fall Semester, 2002. Lectures on Francophone African and Caribbean Novel.

Summer Seminar, “Interrogating the African Diaspora.” Florida International University, Miami, August 2-8, 2004.

MEMBERSHIP OF LEARNED SOCIETIES; HONOURS .

Société Africaine de Culture, Paris. (Member since 1964).

Modern Language Association of Nigeria. Founding member, 1972.

African Literature Association, USA. Vice-President, 1989-90; President, 1991-92.

Membre Correspondant, Académie Royale des Sciences d'Outre-mer, Belgium, 1978.

African Studies Association, U.S.A., since 1987.

Association pour l'Etude de la Littérature Africaine (APELA), France. Founding Member, 1985.

Society for African Philosophy in North America. (SAPINA). Founding Member, 1992.

Modern Language Association, USA (MLA), since 1989. Service on the following committees of the MLA:

  • William Riley Parker Prize Selection Committee, 1990-93.
  • Division on Francophone Literatures and Cultures : elected to five year term, 1997- 2002; Committee Chair, 2001-2002.
  • Nominations Committee, elected for 2-year term, 2002-2004.
  • Executive Committee: elected to 3-year term, 2006-2009)

Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques (France), 1980.

Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Letters. (2003)

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Currently:

General Editor, Cambridge Studies in African and Caribbean Literature, Cambridge University Press. The following volumes in the series have been published to date:

Chinua Achebe (C.L. Innes)
Nadine Gordimer (Dominic Head )
V.S. Naipaul (Mustapha)
Edouard Glissant (Michael Dash)
J-M Coetzee (Dominic Head)
Aimé Césaire (Gregson Davis)
Ngugi wa Thiongo (Simon Gikandi)
Wole Soyinka (Biodun Jeyifo)
Derek Walcott (Edward Baugh)

Editor, Transition Magazine. (with Tommie Shelby)

Previously:

Assistant Editor, Présence Africaine, Paris, 1963-64.

Co-editor, Black Orpheus (with Ulli Beier and Ezekiel Mphahlele, 1964-1966; with John Pepper Clark, 1967-1972)

Chairman, Ethiope Publishing Corporation, Midwestern State of Nigeria, 1972-75. (An official appointment for the promotion of local book publishing).

Member, Management Committee (Jury), Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, 1980-1982; re-appointed to new term, 1989; appointed Chairman and served in this capacity 1990-1994.

Secretary-General, International Congress of African Studies, 1981-1985.

Chairman, Panel of Judges, Africa Region, and Member, International Panel, Commonwealth Prize for Literature, 1987 and 1988.

Member, Board of Trustees, Opera Columbus, 1989-1991.

UNESCO Consultant for Symposium on "The Main Issues in African Fiction and Poetry on the Threshold of the Twenty-first Century," held February 10-13th 1992, Harare, Zimbabwe .

Consultant, Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara . Edited by John Middleton.

UNESCO Consultant, Mission on “Culture and Democracy in the Republic of Benin ,” June/July 1996 and December, 1997.

Member, Herskovits Committee, African Studies Association, 2001. (This committee selects the best scholarly publication on Africa to be awarded the annual Herskovits Prize of the Association.)

Consultant, A Companion to African Philosophy edited by Kwasi Wiredu. (Blackwell, 2003)

External Examiner at the following universities:

University of the West Indies (French and English at the three campuses: Mona, Jamaica, Cave Hill, Barbados, and St Augustine, Trinidad).

University of Ghana, Legon. (MA, African Literature)

University of Yaoundé, Cameroon. (Ph D. Literature)

Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone (BA, French)

York University, Toronto, Canada (Ph D, English)

University of Geneva (Ph D., Literature)

University of London (D. Litt.)

Kenyon College. (Honors Thesis, Department of English).

University of Toronto (Ph.D, Department of English).

Swarthmore College, Honors Candidates in Literature, May 2005.
 

Reader/Reviewer for the following bodies:

Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Program.

National Endowment for the Humanities (Grant and Fellowship Applications).

Various academic and general/trade publishers, including the following:

Cambridge University Press, Indiana University Press, Howard University Press, Duke University Press, University Press of Virginia, University of Nebraska Press, State University of New York Press, Columbia University Press, Routledge, Cassell, and Norton and Company.

Languages

Speaking, reading and writing: Yoruba (first language), English and French.

Background in Latin (8 years, leading to University of London General Certificate of Education, Advanced Level)

Variable knowledge of Spanish, German and Italian.

Hobbies and Sports

Music, both western (in particular Italian Opera) and African. As amateur tenor, have participated in student and other amateur productions of operas and in oratorio.

Have given occasional solo recitals of Italian classical songs (arie antiche) and German lieder. Played field hockey in school team and at college; have remained keen soccer enthusiast.