PROFESSOR ALAO TO INTERVIEW THE ALAAFIN
Prof. Akin Alao was born in Ibadan, Oyo State, where he equally had his primary and secondary education between 1967 and 1978. His father, Mr. Isaiah Ladoke Alao worked with the University of Ibadan from the early nineteen fifties until 1975 and his mother Madam Gladys Tinuola Alao was a trader of textile goods, especially Aso Oke and wool materials. Akin proceeded to the University of Ife (Now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife in the same year he completed his School Certificate Examination to read History. He graduated with a Second Class Upper Division Degree in 1982 as a University Scholar and beneficiary of the prestigious Federal Government of Nigeria Scholarship. He returned to Ife immediately after serving the nation under the National Youth Service Corps Scheme to obtain a Master of Arts (M.A.) in History in 1987. His interest in Legal History influenced his decision to study under the supervision of the doyen of Legal History in Nigeria, Prof. Omoniyi Adewoye at the University of Ibadan for a Ph.D. Degree in Legal History.
In 1987, Prof. Alao was appointed Assistant Lecturer in the Department of History, Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, Ondo State where he rose to the rank of Senior Lecturer 1997 before transferring his services to Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife as Lecturer Grade I in the Department of History. He was promoted Senior Lecturer in 2000, became an Associate Professor in History in 2005 and Full Professor of Legal History in 2009.
Prof. Akin Alao has served in different academic and administrative capacities at various levels within and outside the University. Within the Department of History, Prof. Alao was Acting Head of Department of History between 2005 and 2008; Editor in Chief Ife Journal of History since 2008; Editor, ODU: Journal of West African Studies, Editor-in-Chief, Ife: Annals of the Institute of African Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Staff Secretary, Department of History, 1998-1999; Examination Coordinator, Department of History, 1998-2001; and Convener of National Conference on State and Society in Nigeria, National Conference on the Chieftaincy Institution in Nigeria and National Conference on Migration and Settlement Patterns in Nigeria. Within the Faculty of Arts, he was Member of Faculty of Arts Consultancy Committee, 1998-2000; Member, Faculty of Arts Examination Vetting Committee, 1998-2005; Member, Faculty of Arts Review Committee, 2005-2008; Member, Faculty Week Organising Committee, 2004-2006; and Representative of Faculty of Arts at Senate, 2004-2006. Within the University, Prof. Akin Alao has served as University Internal Postgraduate Examiner for several Departments in the Faculties of Administration, Education, Law, Social Sciences and Arts and as Rapporteur, University Research Policy Review Committee.
More significantly, he was appointed Acting Director of the Institute of Cultural Studies, a position he held from 2008-2011 with significant achievements. Outside the Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof. Akin Alao has served as Examiner for Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (now Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination Board) and External Examiner (Undergraduate and Postgraduate) and Assessor for professorial appointments/ promotions in many Nigerian Universities. Prof. Akin Alao is also on the Editorial Board of several local and international academic and professional journals. Between 2006 and 2014, he served as the Executive Vice Chairman of Centre for Black Art and African Civilization (CBAAC) International Conferences Committee. He was also a teaching Fellow and Faculty at the Center for African and African American Studies, University of Texas at Austin between 2002 and 2004 during which he introduced and taught courses in Yoruba History and Culture. Prof. Alao is a Fellow of the Molefi Kete Asante Centre at Temple University, Philadelphia, USA. He is also a Senior Scholar and Advisor for the African Humanities Program of the American Council for Learned Societies. Prof. Akin Alao has just ended an academic sojourn as a Sabbatical Fellow at the Centre for Strategic Research and Studies, National Defence College, Abuja.
Prof. Akin Alao is an accomplished academic, researcher and professional historian. He has taught (and still teaches) several undergraduate and postgraduate courses in intellectual and political history of Nigeria and Africa. He has more than sixty academic publications in the forms of authored and edited books, journal articles and book chapters. His magnum opus, Statesmanship on the Bench: The Judicial Career of Sir Adetokunbo Ademola CJN 1934-1972, remains a reference text in Legal History. In 2011, he co-edited with Rotimi Taiwo, Perspectives on African Studies: Essays in Honour of Toyin Falola which is today the only Festschrift on Prof. Toyin Falola by scholars based in Nigeria. As a biographer, Prof. Alao is currently working on the Power of Conviction and Courage: A Biography of Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, Alaafin of Oyo.
Prof. Alao is married to an academic, Dr. Mrs. Ireti Alao and blessed two daughters. His hobbies include, but not limited to, creative writing and bird watching.
Please join us for a conversation with the Iku Baba Yeye, Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III.
Sunday, October 24, 2021
5:00 PM Nigeria
4:00 PM GMT
11:00 AM Austin CST
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https://www.tfinterviews.com/post/oba-adeyemi
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https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81744516490
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