Professor Falola discusses with Lead City 89.1 FM
Professor Toyin Omoyeni Falola was born on the 1st of January 1953 in Ibadan , Oyo State. He is a Nigerian historian and professor of African Studies. He is currently the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin. Professor Falola earned his B.A. and Ph.D. in History in 1981 at the University of Ife, Ile-Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University ). He is a Fellow of the Historical Society of Nigeria and of the Nigerian Academy of Letters . Professor Falola is author and editor of more than one hundred books, and he is the general editor of the Cambria African Studies Series (Cambria Press).
His research interest is African History since the 19th century in the tradition of the Ibadan School. His geographic areas of interest include Africa , Latin America and the United States; and his thematic fields, Atlantic history ,diaspora and migration , empire and globalization , intellectual history , international relations, religion and culture . Recent courses he has taught include Introduction to Traditional Africa, an interdisciplinary course on the peoples and cultures of Africa, designed for students with varied backgrounds in African Studies, and Epistemologies of African/Black Studies, a course on the rise and evolution of African/Black Studies, with a focus on pedagogy, methodology, and the historical development of scholarship in the field.
Professor Toyin Falola began his academic career as a schoolteacher in Pahayi in 1970 and by 1981 he was a lecturer at the University of Ife. He joined the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin in 1991, and has also held short-term teaching appointments at the University of Cambridge in England, York University in Canada , Smith College of Massachusetts in the United States, The Australian National University in Canberra , Australia and the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in Lagos , Nigeria.
Falola has received several honorary doctorates, lifetime career awards and honors in various parts of the world, including The Lincoln Award, Nigerian Diaspora Academic Prize, Cheikh Anta Diop Award, Amistad Award, SIRAS Award for Outstanding Contribution to African Studies, Africana Studies Distinguished Global Scholar Lifetime Achievement Award, Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, Fellow of the Historical Society of Nigeria, and The Distinguished Africanist Award. At the University of Texas at Austin, he received the Jean Holloway Award for Teaching Excellence, The Texas Exes Teaching Award, The Chancellor's Council Outstanding Teaching Award, Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award, and the Career Research Excellence Award. Professor Falola is a friend and regular guest to Lead City University.