Exciting appointment for Soyinka’s Abu Dhabi University team

Professor Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in Literature, has been appointed to the faculty of NYU Abu Dhabi (New York and United Arab Emirates), receiving numerous honors.

The brilliant essayist and playwright will join NYU Abu Dhabi College on September 1, 2022, as part of the academic strategy of the university’s mission as an educational institution.

Soyinka will join the institution as a professor of dramatic arts, the school noted on its website on Aug. 23, 2022.

Saturday Punch Gathered two lecturers from the university; Manthia Diawara and Awam Amkpa in the effort to get Soyinka on board.

Documentary filmmaker Diawara is a professor of comparative literature at the institution and a former director of African studies at the institution.

Amkpa, a professor of drama at NYU, was a former student of Soyinka, studying theatre arts at what was then Yves University (now Obafemi Awolowo University). Amkpa is a former classmate of the talented Nigerian playwright Professor Ahmed Yerima.

Commenting on the development, Jerima, prolific theatre director and lecturer at the University of Salvation, said Saturday Punch He was delighted that Soyinka had been appointed as a lecturer at the university.

He said: “I am very pleased with the appointment of Professor Wole Soyinka as a lecturer at NYU Abu Dhabi. I also thank NYU and my dear friend Professor Awam Ankpa for facilitating my appointment. I wish our teachers All is well with my father.”

Likewise, Segun Adekoya, professor of literature at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, described Soyinka’s new appointment as a firm recognition of the Nobel laureate’s lofty position in the cultural industry, as well as his enormous and enduring contribution to world literature. Approved.

Adekoya added: “Just as the appointment is a great honor for this accomplished and well-known author, it will bring great prestige and recognition to NYU Abu Dhabi. It is mutually beneficial. I think it will give him Writing free from the possible distractions of Nigeria’s current national political and social anomie, ironically, provides the fodder for his imaginative writing.”