Vice-President - Elect
Dr. Nduka Otiono
Biography
Nduka Otiono is a writer, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator at the Institute of African Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa. He is the author and co-editor of several books of creative writing and academic research. Prior to turning to academia, he was for many years a journalist in Nigeria, General Secretary of Association of Nigerian Authors, founding member of the Nigerian chapter of UNESCO’s Committee on Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage, and founding member of the Board of the $100,000 annual Nigerian Prize for Literature. A Fellow of the William Joiner Centre for War and Social Consequences, University of Massachusetts, Boston, his research interests span Cultural Studies, Oral Performance and Literature in Africa, Postcolonial Studies, Media and Communication Studies, Globalization and Popular Culture.
His recent books include Oral Literary Performance in Africa: Beyond Text (2021), Wreaths for a Wayfarer (2020), and Polyvocal Bob Dylan: Music, Performance, Literature (2019). His research has appeared in top-ranked journals such as Journal of Folklore Research, African Literature Today, Journal of African Cinema, Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies, Postcolonial Text, Wasafiri, Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, and Canadian Journal of African Studies.
His creative writing publications include The Night Hides with a Knife (short stories), which won the ANA/Spectrum Prize; Voices in the Rainbow (Poetry), a finalist for the ANA/Cadbury Poetry Prize; Love in a Time of Nightmares (Poetry) for which he was awarded the James Patrick Folinsbee Memorial Scholarship in Creative Writing. He has co-edited Camouflage: Best of Contemporary Writing from Nigeria (2006); and We-Men: An Anthology of Men Writing on Women (1998).
Otiono obtained his doctorate in English and Film Studies from the University of Alberta where he won numerous awards including the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship, and was nominated for the Governor General’s Gold Medal for academic distinction. He has held postdoctoral fellowships at Brown University where he was also appointed a Visiting Assistant Professor and the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at Carleton University.
His professional honours include a Capital Educator’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Carleton University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Early Career Award for Research Excellence, Carnegie Africa Diaspora Fellowship (twice), and Black History Ottawa Community Builder Award.
DisPlace: The Poetry of Nduka Otiono is his latest book slated for release in October 2021 by Wilfrid Laurier University Press as part of Canada’s most prestigious poetry series, The Laurier Poetry Series (LPS).
Secretary-Treasurer - Elect
Dr. Nicole Haggerty
Biography
Dr Nicole Haggerty is an Associate Professor in Information Systems. Since she left the private sector to pursue a second career in Academia, she has studied how to maximize the effectiveness of IT enabled organizational performance. Her research has specifically focused on the role of the increasing importance of cross-functional knowledge sharing and virtual competence as mechanisms to enhance value creation from technology. Her most recent projects examine digital transformation initiatives in the health care sector.
Dr. Haggerty also has a keen interest in case-based education and how this active learning method creates significant learning experiences for students. She has taught faculty development workshops on this method for over 500 faculty members in Colombia, The Netherlands, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Ghana, India and Canada winning the 2012 Emerging Leaders Award in Academic Leadership from the Ivey Alumni Association and the Innovations in Case Teaching Award, from The Case Centre in the UK in 2014. Dr. Haggerty is a social innovator who runs The Ubuntu Management Education Initiative from Ivey with a goal of collaboratively building capacity for case based education in African Universities and Business Schools.