70 dons to attend Ife summer institute

Forum 9 months ago

70 dons to attend Ife summer institute

Approximately 70 professors from all over the world will participate in the 2023 Ife Summer Institute.

A statement by the institute said the seventh edition of the Annual Ife Summer Institute, a two-week academic engagement for doctoral and postdoctoral researchers from around the world, would begin on Monday, July 24 at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

Titled, ‘Advancing Africa through the Academy: Innovation, creativity, and service,’ the statement added that it was an annual programme organised by a Nigerian professor at Harvard University, Jacob Olupona, who was recently inducted into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

It revealed that a distinguished Canadian professor at the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto, Kamari Clarke, would deliver the keynote address on ‘Advancing Academia in Africa as an Otherwise Project: Foundations, Methods, and Transmission as a 21st Century Challenge,’ while Olupona would deliver the Convener’s address.

The Vice-Chancellor, Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof. Simeon Bamire, is the chief host.

The statement explained that based on the preliminary findings of the Graduate Employability research conducted by past fellows of the institute in collaboration with the Michael and Henrietta Olupona Foundation and the Mastercard Foundation, this year’s edition would focus on how the creativity and innovation of the institute could promote African progress.

It read, “The idea is to inspire participants to promote African development through research and to use African knowledge systems to chart a path to developing a sustainable master plan for the continent’s present and future. Consequently, the 2023 edition will be workshop-based, with conversations centred on creativity, innovation, and service through academic engagement on a variety of skills development-related topics.

“Over 230 male and female doctoral and postdoctoral scholars from STEM and non-STEM fields from countries such as Cameroon, Canada, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malaysia, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sénégal, Tanzania, Uganda, the United Kingdom, the United States, Zambia, and Zimbabwe applied to the Summer Institute in 2023. Only 73 were invited as in-person participants, including individuals with disabilities and nursing mothers, while 156 were invited as virtual participants.”