Carleton University’s Professor of African Studies and writer, Nduka Otiono, has been awarded a prestigious fellowship by the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Programme to travel to Nigeria to work with Delta State University to co-develop Graduate Student Teaching, Training, and Mentoring on Interdisciplinary Research Methods and Project Writing.

Prof. Otiono will be collaborating with Gordini G. Darah, Professor of English and President of Nigeria Oral Literature Organization (NOLA), to launch a Working Group for researching the Oral Literature and Folklore and Folklife of Delta State and beyond, develop short professional seminars on interdisciplinary research methods for graduate students and early career faculty, and initiate a new interdisciplinary graduate course, Globalization and Popular Culture in Africa. Prof. Otiono’s work during the fellowship is geared towards intensive capacity building, curriculum enrichment, and professionalization.

According to Prof. Otiono, “The project triangulates around a vision and mission that will advance the commitment of the sponsor Carnegie Corporation of New York to turning Africa’s brain drain to brain gain, while mutually benefitting students and faculty members at Carleton University— my home university— and Delta State University—the host University in my country of origin, Nigeria”.

Prof Otiono hopes that the fellowship will foster new ideas and networks for his work, as well as enable the inauguration of international exchange between Carleton University and Delta State University.

The Delta State University project is one of 17 projects that will pair African Diaspora scholars with higher education institutions in Africa to collaborate on curriculum co-development, research, graduate teaching, training and mentoring activities. Prof. Otiono is one of 17 African Diaspora scholars who have been awarded fellowships to travel to Africa beginning in spring 2015 to conduct a wide range of projects, including developing an MBA programme, staging a musical based on South African themes and Africa-sensitive research in cognitive psychology.

According to Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of History at Quinnipiac University, Dr. Zeleza, “Diaspora knowledge networks that bring together academics across disciplines and help to facilitate scholarly collaboration, faculty and student exchanges, and networking opportunities are an important component of brain circulation. Diaspora academics constitute a critical facet of higher education internationalization. The connections fostered through them ultimately support capacity building and innovation in home and host countries. Unique in its organization, CADFP offers opportunities for truly collaborative, innovative and transformative engagements between African Diaspora academics in Canada and the United States and African higher education institutions in six countries.”

“The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellows Program exemplifies Carnegie Corporation’s enduring commitment to higher education in Africa,” said IIE’s President and CEO, Allan E. Goodman.