Research

To learned societies

• Otiono, Nduka. “Their Fate in their own Hands: African Writers and the Informal Economy of Publishing in the Postcolony.” Paper presented at the Canadian Association of African Studies conference, Kingston, May 4-6, 2018.
• Otiono, Nduka. “From Danfo to Tro-tro and Matatu: Mobile Public Spheres, Street Stories, and Social Struggles in Africa.” Paper presented at the 60th African Studies Association conference, Chicago, November 16-19, 2017.
• –. “Isidore Okpewho’s “Saving Instinct”: From Classicism to Indegeneity.” Presented as part of a special round-table at the African Literature Association conference, Yale University, New Haven. June 15-18, 2017.
• –. “From Grass to Grandeur: Nollywood, Self-Reflexivity and Gospel Music Promotional Video in Nigeria.” Presented at the 17th Africa Conference, University of Texas at Austin, March 31-April 2, 2017.
• “Africa’s Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Modernities, and Everyday

Life in Postcolonial Africa Plenary Conference Lecture presented at the biennial conference of Delta State University, Abraka on the theme: “The Humanities and the Reconstruction of Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Africa.” August 24, 2016.

• “Probing the Hyphen in Hyphenated Identities of the “Afropolitan” in Okey Ndibe’s Foreign God’s Inc.?” Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) Conference, University of Ottawa, June 5, 2015.
• “From Oral Tradition to Digital Narratives: Nollywood and the Production of  Indigenous Knowledge – The Example of Kunle Afolayan’s The Figurine and Ifeanyi Onyeabor’s Fulani (2011)”. International Society for the Oral Literatures of Africa (ISOLA) conference, University of Cocody, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, June 11-15, 2014.

• “Orality in a Digital Age: Reflections on New Forms of Popular Cultural Production in Africa.” Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) Conference, Brock University, May 29, 2014.

• Invited Panelist, Media and Entertainment Panel, MIT Sloan Africa Business conference, March 15-16, 2013, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
• “Street Stories: Representations in Nollywood and Popular Music in an Age of

Globalization.” Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) Conference,

Carleton University, Ottawa, May 1-3, 2013.

• “Saro-Wiwa’s Ghost: The Niger Delta Struggle and Filmic Representations in

Nollywood.”  The “Petrocultures: Oil, Energy, Culture” conference, September 6 – 8^th, 2012, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

• “Riders to the Grave: Street Stories, General Abacha, and the Politics of Death in Nigeria,” “Return to the Street” conference, Goldsmiths, University of London, June 27-28, 2012.

• “From Urban Sphere to Cyber Space: New Media, Citizen Journalism and the

Role of Sahara Reporters in Nigeria’s Political Struggle.” New Media | Alternative Politics: Communication technologies and political change in the Middle East and Africa conference, Cambridge University, 2010.

• –“Orality, Masculinities and Narrative Strategy in The Arabian Nights.” Paper Presented at “Somebody or Something Else”: Graduate Conference on Performance and Performativity, University of Montréal, Montreal. March 12th-13th, 2010.
• “In the Name of the Mother, and of the Daughter, and of the Griot: The Folk, the Urban, and the Iconoclastic in Tess Onwueme’s Drama.” Paper presented at the “Osonye Tess Onwueme: Staging Women, Youth, Globalization, and Eco-literature” international conference, Abuja, Nigeria, 2009.
• “Not yet the Last of the Strong Ones: Orality and the Revolutionary Role of African Women in Social Transformation in Sembene Ousmane’s Molaade.” Paper presented at the 4^th Women in Africa and the Diaspora (WAAD) International conference, Abuja, 2009.
• “Connecting Diasporas, Deterritorializing Narrative: Europe by Road and the Shifting Landscapes of Nollywood Film.” African Literature Association Conference, University of Vermont, Vermont, USA. 2009.
• “Negotiating Identity: History, Nationalism and Creativity in Canadian Literature – The Example of Armand Garnet Ruffo’s Grey Owl: The Mystery of Archie Belaney.” Presented at the Canadian Literature Centre, Centre, Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature Germaniche e Romanze, University of Udine, Italy. 2008.
• –.  “Re-imaging War, Retelling History: Across the Niger and the Nigerian Civil War Narrative.”
• European Science Foundation-Linkoping University conference on Imaging War: Intergenerational Perspectives, Vadstena, Sweden, 2008.
• “Rumors and the Popular Press in Nigeria: Transformations and Transfictions.” Popular Print Culture conference, University of Alberta, 2008.
• “Street Lore, Folklore and History: The Oral Artist as Guardian of the Wor(l)d –The Example of Nweke Momah.” Paper presented at the Ibadan International Conference on African Literature, Department of English, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria, 2008.
•  “The Minstrel as a Homeboy: Tanure Ojaide and the Niger Delta Question in In the House of Words and The Tale of the Harmattan.” Paper presented at the second Tanure Ojaide International conference, Delta State University, Abraka, 2008.
• “Witnessing Partialities: The Niger Delta, Street Lore and Tanure Ojaide’s Poetry.” Paper presented at the second Tanure Ojaide international conference, Delta State University, Abraka, 2008.
• –. “Tradition and Technology: New Nigerian Performance Poets and the Search for New Idioms of Expression.” Paper presented at the International Society for Oral Literature in Africa (ISOLA) conference, Lecce, Italy, 2008.
•  “Patrons, Tin gods and Mammon: The Igbo Minstrel and the Oral Performance in a Changing Society.” Paper presented at the first Department of Music Graduate Music Students Association (GMSA) conference, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, 2008.

To other academic bodies (recent only)

• Invited Speaker, the inaugural colloquium of the newly founded Research Center for Cultural and Literary Planetary Studies (Le Centre de recherche des études littéraires et culturelles sur la planétarité) at the Université de Montréal.  Title of Talk: “Moonsongs for the Eye of the Earth: Africa and the Politics of Saving a Planet in Peril.” October 16, 2017.
• Invited Keynote Speaker, Ottawa Literary Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror conference (can-con.org), October 15, 2017.
• Invited Keynote Speaker, Carleton University’s Educational Development Centre Teaching Assistant (TA) Training Day, Saturday, September 23^, 2017. Title of presentation: “And the Word was Made Memorable: The TA, the Classroom, and the Learning Imperative.”
• Invited Speaker, one-day Colloquium “Globalization and Social Media” organized by Department of Mass Communication, Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria. August 2015.
• Panel Moderator, Literary Society of Nigeria annual conference on the theme, “Trans-national Migration and the African Literary Experience,” Niger Delta State University, Wilberforce, August 2015.
• Invited Guest Speaker, “Breaking Barriers to Academic Research Grants and Sponsorships.” Faculty Board of Faculty Arts and Social Sciences, Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria. July 2015.

• Invited Speaker, Colloquium Colloquium on “Globalization and Social Media” organized by Department of Mass Communication, Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria. August 2015.
• Invited Guest Speaker, “Breaking Barriers to Academic Research Grants and Sponsorships.” Faculty Board of Faculty Arts and Social Sciences, Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria. July 2015.
• Guest Speaker, “Is Nigeria Falling Apart?” Africa Study Group Visiting Speaker series, St. Paul University, January 28, 2015.
• Guest Speaker, “The Malian Crisis: Causes and Consequences for the West African Sub-Region,” Human Rights and Education Centre, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, March 13, 2013.
• Guest Speaker, Special Guest Seminar, “Africa’s Social Spaces and the Politics of Everyday Popular Urban Narratives,” School of Architecture and Planning, The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, July 2, 2014.