About Us

Our Approach

"Who Are We?"

Our Story

The mission of the Toyin Falola Center for the Study of Africa (TFCSA) is to enable students, academics, scholars, and policy makers to engage in, produce, and disseminate research in African studies in order to advance knowledge and public awareness of Africa and the African diaspora. In support of this mission, the TFCSA will pursue the following key aims:

Support the production of knowledge and the circulation of resources about the peoples, cultures, and histories of Africa in order to expand public awareness;
Provide learning opportunities and educational materials for African communities within the continent and abroad;
Empower scholars of African studies to produce and publish high-quality research;
Promote global connections and positive interactions across and within national boundaries and professional groups with regard to Africa.

In support of these aims, TFCSA works to strengthen the links between Research, Dialogue, and Dissemination (RDD).

Dr. Toyin Falola Born in 1953 in Ibadan, Nigeria, Toyin Omoyeni Falola is a historian and professor of African Studies. He earned his BA and PhD (1981) in history at the University of Ife, Ile-Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in Nigeria. He is the Frances Higginbotham Nalle Centennial Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has taught since 1991. Dr. Falola has always been committed to nurturing young scholars by facilitating their professional viability and growth. He has received several awards in recognition of his teaching commitment to African studies, including the 2010 Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award, the Jean Holloway Award for Teaching Excellence, the Texas Exes Teaching Award. The year 2009 marked the publication of Falola’s 100th authored or edited book; and since then he has published more than eighteen new volumes. His books have garnered many awards, including the K. O. Dike Prize and the James Currey Award.

Dr. Falola is an editor for four book series and serves on the editorial boards of more than twenty journals, all of which have yielded numerous innovative books and articles from new scholars. He moderates the USA Africa Dialogue Series and the Yourba Affairs, international listservs with more than 2,000 members that discuss current events and issues of importance to Africa and its diaspora. He hosts the annual international Africa conference at the University of Texas at Austin, now in its 12th year; the University of Ibadan in Ibadan, Nigeria has founded the Toyin Falola Annual Conference (TOFAC) in his honor. Falola has received an unprecedented three Festschriften and eighteen lifetime achievement awards by highly esteemed universities and organizations in the United States, Nigeria, and Brazil, and an Honorary Doctorate from Monmouth University.

He is a Fellow of the Historical Society of Nigeria and of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, and currently serves as Vice President of UNESCO’s International Scientific Committee, Slave Route Project. In 2011, He received the prestigious African Studies Association Distinguished Africanist Award “to recognize and honor individuals who have contributed a lifetime of outstanding scholarship in African Studies combined with service to the Africanist community.”