Award of professorship: Congratulations to professor Apollos Nwauwa
By Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.
The news came from Bowling Green State University, announcing the award of Professor of Service Excellence to Professor Nwauwa. The citation is below. I congratulate him for this, and I can testify to his dedicated commitment to building African Studies on the campus. He has done well.
Bowling Green State University, Ohio, United States of America (USA) has named Nigerian-born Professor Apollos Okwuchi Nwauwa as Professor of Service Excellence.
This award/honor was presented to Professor Nwauwa by the University’s President, Dr. Rodney Rogers, and Dr. Joe B. Whitehead, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, during the 34th Annual Faculty Award Ceremony held at the University on April 4, 2023.
“The title of Professorship of Service Excellence is conferred upon members of the faculty who hold the rank of professor and who have established outstanding national and international recognition for professional service and/or public service through their work at the University,” a statement announcing the investiture said.
An Ekwe in Orlu, Imo State, Nigeria- born historian and professor of Africana Studies at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, USA, Professor Nwauwa earned his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree from the then Bendel State University (later renamed Ambrose Alli University), Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria, received his M.A. and Ph.D. in History at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1989 and 1993 respectively and is a member of many learned societies. He has taught at several universities in Africa and America.
Author and co-editor of over 10 scholarly books and 40 research articles published in journals worldwide, Professor Nwauwa’s most recent research piece on West African Elites has been published by Oxford University in its reference research encyclopedia on Africa.
Nwauwa is Editor-in-Chief of Ofo Journal of Transatlantic Studies, serves on the editorial board of several international journals and is member of many learned societies.
Professor Nwauwa was pivotal in the founding of several national and continental organizations including the scholarly Igbo Studies Association for which he served as Program chair and later President from 2010-2014; Nigerian Diaspora Movement (NDM) for which he serves as its current Chairman; the Nigerian Diaspora Organizations Americas ( NIDOA), USA for which he served as Secretary General and member of Board of Trustees from 2015-2020 and African Diaspora Congress (ADC) for which he serves as its current Secretary General.
Nwauwa is still actively serving the Nigerian, African Diaspora, and African American communities.
Related Posts
As a humanist and goodwill ambassador to the core, Professor Nwauwa has helped to sponsor several indigent students in Nigerian universities. In 2015, he organized and funded a medical mission to his hometown. Notably, he has helped to bring many Nigerian and African students to the USA for advanced studies. Some of his former doctoral students are now professors at some American universities. Indeed, one of them, supervised by Nwauwa, won the best PhD dissertation award not only at Bowling Green State University but also in the state of Ohio.
Professor Nwauwa has dedicated much of his professional life to giving back to Nigeria and Africa not only in teaching and research but also by his mentoring presence. In 2016-2017, he took a one-year leave from his university to teach at the University of Calabar and was honored with an award by his student for his devotion. Thereafter, he served as a visiting fellow at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. Professor Nwauwa is committed to turning brain drain into brain gain or brain circulation.
