The Executive Secretary/CEO, National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Dr. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma has again been scheduled to serve as Keynote Speaker at a 2-day conference on Media Studies in Ibadan, Nigeria, in honour of a foremost Nigerian film scholar, Professor Hyginus Ekwuazi.
A call for Submission of Abstracts and full papers for the conference, released by a Co-Convener of the conference, Professor Onookome Okome of University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, stated that the programme is scheduled to hold at the African Studies Centre, University of Ibadan, Ibadan from 22-24 October, 2015 and had 27 April as deadline for Submission of Abstracts, while due date for full papers is 1st June, 2015.
With the theme: “Media Studies in Nigeria: Genesis and Detours,” the conference and its book of essays are not just expected to celebrate Professor Hyginus Ekwuazi, a poet and film scholar with deep knowledge in the areas of film theory and criticism, but will have a number of essays devoted to the role he played in the making of the Ibadan School of Media Studies.
For the conference, contributions are solicited on the broad theme of media history in Nigeria and Africa, sociology and aesthetics, and essays that privilege the intersection between popular cinema and the more traditional African cinema of French expression.
Titles and abstracts for the conference are expected to reach the conveners, Onookome Okome on ookome@ualberta.ca or Marcel Okhakhu on marcelokhakhu@gmail.com.
It will be recalled that at the boom of media scholarship in Ibadan, Professor Hyginus Ekwuazi recorded an extraordinary performance in media history and performance in Theatre Arts, where he became an exchange student at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University, Philadelphia, USA respectively; and immediately after his return, he was said to have taken a position at the University of Ibadan and has since tutored and mentored many scholars in media studies, including the conference conveners, Professors Onookome Okome and Marcel Okhakhu, Professor Femi Shaka of the University of Port Harcourt, as well as NICO’s Executive Secretary, Dr. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma, among scholars.
Meanwhile, NICO’s ES, Dr. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma, who is also a Visiting Associate Professor at Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK), is expected to deliver a keynote paper at the conference alongside Professor Jonathan Haynes of Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus, New York, United States of America, who pioneered intellectual studies on Nigeria’s Nollywood.
Caleb Nor
Corporate Affairs Unit
NICO, Abuja