Carleton University’s Professor Nduka Otiono has been elected Vice President of the Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS). The result of the keenly contested election was announced at the annual general meeting of the association held virtually on June 9th as part of the just concluded annual conference of the association. To emerge as the Vice President, Professor Otiono vied for the position with Professor Khalid Medani who holds a joint appointment in Political Science/Islamic Studies at McGill University.
By this election, Professor Otiono is slated to succeed the newly inaugurated President, Professor Isaac Bazié of The Université du Québec à Montréal, after one year.
This year’s CAAS conference organizer, Professor Nicole Haggerty, an Associate Professor of Information Systems and Director of the Africa Institute at Western University, was acclaimed the new Secretary-Treasurer.
Professor Otiono took to his social media to “thank members of the association for their vote of confidence,” and pledged to “contribute to advancing the profile of the association as it clocks 60 next year.”
Nduka Otiono is a writer, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator at the Institute of African Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa. He is the author and co-editor of several books of creative writing and academic research. Prior to turning to academia, he was for many years a journalist in Nigeria, General Secretary of Association of Nigerian Authors, founding member of the Nigerian chapter of UNESCO’s Committee on Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage, and founding member of the Board of the $100,000 annual Nigerian Prize for Literature. A Fellow of the William Joiner Centre for War and Social Consequences, University of Massachusetts, Boston, his research interests span Cultural Studies, Oral Performance and Literature in Africa, Postcolonial Studies, Media and Communication Studies, Globalization and Popular Culture.
His recent books include Oral Literary Performance in Africa: Beyond Text (2021), Wreaths for a Wayfarer (2020), and Polyvocal Bob Dylan: Music, Performance, Literature (2019). His research has appeared in top-ranked journals such as Journal of Folklore Research, African Literature Today, Journal of African Cinema, Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies, Postcolonial Text, Wasafiri, Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, and Canadian Journal of African Studies.