Jos Convocation Ceremony
The University of Jos (UNIJOS) in Plateau State celebrated two convocation ceremonies as well as the 40th anniversary of the institution. The convocation, which was a security special event because of the prominent figures it attracted, saw the conferment of honorary doctorate degrees on four Nigerians, who have made outstanding contribution to nation building, and particularly added value to the institution. One of the four celebrated was Professor Toyin Falola, a renowned historian and professor of African Studies who was conferred with the degree of Doctor of Letters, for his outstanding academic achievements, mentoring of young academics and building of research networks internationally, amongst other achievements.
The Lincoln Awards
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, PA - The Lincoln University, the nation's first-degree granting Historically Black College & University, announced it will award Dr. Toyin Falola, the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, an honorary doctorate degree at its 156th Commencement on Friday, May 8 at 9:00 a.m. in the university's stadium.
Falola, who is one of the most prolific and erudite global scholars of his generation, has published more than 125 books, numerous journal articles and book chapters on Africa and the African Diaspora. Coupled with his high level of internation engagement activites and commitment to Pan Africanism, he has become on the most respected and influential scholars of the 20th and 21st centuries.
"I am deeply humbled and honored to receive such a prestigious honor," Falola Said. "The greatest hope that a
scholar can have is to feel that his/her efforts in the academy have been appreciated across time and space."Widely proclaimed as Africa's preeminent historian and one of the major intellectuals of our time, Falola has been invited to speak in all continents, and in over sixty countries. He also manages five distinguished scholarly monograph series, and serves on the board of over twenty journals.
Falola has received several honorary doctorates, lifetime career awards and honors in various parts of the world, including the Nigerian Diaspora Academic Prize, the Cheikh Anta Diop Award, the Amistad Award, the 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 The Distinguished Africanist Award and three Yoruba chieftaincy times, most notably the Bobapitan of Ibadanland ("the grand historian of the empire").
At the University of Texas at Austin, he reveived the Jean Holloway Awaed 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.
Dr Falola Wins 2010 Nigerian Studies Associatin's NSA Book Award
Professor Toyin Falola's most recent book garners the 2010 Nigerian Studies Association's (NSA) book award.
The NSA is the largest association of scholars, practioners and others who are engaged in the study of Nigeria.
The organization plays a role in public policy matters, promotes the development of archives, and organizes conferences and workshops.
Their best book award emphasizes orginality and relevances to the Nigerian conditions.
Falola's book dwells on two phases of Nigerian history ranging from the last quarter of the nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth, focusing on the linkages between colonial domination and violence:
The first phase witnessed violent confrontations between the British and the Nigerian groups, imperialist encounters that generated violence.
The second phase spanned the period from the turn of the century to the late 1940s, a period when Nigerians resisted the forces of colonial domination.
The award will be presented at the NSA's annual meeting in San Francisco, Nov. 2010.
There have been numerous other accolades for the book:
"Colonial violence treated from the point of view of the African victims colonized, not from the self-serving perspective of European/British conquerors and colonizers." -Feilx Ekechi, Kent State University