Iyunolu F. Osagie
English Department
430 Burrowes Building
Penn State University
University Park, PA 16802
Email: ifo1@psu.edu
Cell: (814) 574-0383
Education
1992 - Ph.D. in English, Cornell University
Dissertation: Technologies of Myth and the Inscription of Subjectivity: Reading Bessie Head’s A Question of Power and Toni Morrison’s Beloved
1990 - MA in English, Cornell University
1985 - MA in English Literature, University of Ife, Nigeria
1983 - BA in English and Literary Studies, University of Ife, Nigeria
Professional Experience
2017 - 2022, Emeritus Faculty, English Department & African Studies Program, Penn State
2017 – 2020, Professor, School of Writing, Literature, and Film, Oregon State
2014 - 2017, Associate Professor of English and African Studies, Penn State
1999 - 2014, Associate Professor of English, Penn State
1992 - 1999, Assistant Professor of English, Penn State
(Leave of absence: 1997-1998)
1987 - 1990, Teaching Assistant, Freshman Writing Program, Cornell
1985 - 1987, Lecturer, Ogun State University (Nigeria)
1985 - 1986, Theatre Director, Ogun State University (Nigeria)
Publication
A. Books
African Modernity and the Philosophy of Culture in the Works of Femi Euba (Lexington Books, Black Diasporic Worlds Series, 2017)
Theater in Sierra Leone: Five Popular Plays (Edited) (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2009).
The Amistad Revolt: Memory, Slavery, and the Politics of Identity in the US and Sierra Leone (U of Georgia P, 2000, 2003).
B. Journal Articles and Book Chapters
“The Man Died: Wole Soyinka’s Imprisonment and the Yoruba Trickster Tale in Femi Euba’s Tortoise! Atlantic Studies (2021): 1-14. DOI: 10.1080/14788810.2020.1870400
Osagie, I. & Sylvia Owiny. “The Evolution of Naming in the Amistad Incident.” Journal of Pan- African Studies 7.8 (2015): 1-19.
“Situating Agency in Blood Diamond and Ezra: Implications for Sierra Leone Theatre and Politics.” Hollywood’s Africa After 1994. Edited by MaryEllen Higgins. (Ohio University Press, 2012): 313-337.
Buzinde, C. and I. Osagie. “Slavery Heritage Representations, Cultural Citizenship, and Judicial Politics in America.” Historical Geography 39(2011): 41-64.
Buzinde, C. & I. Osagie. “William Wells Brown: Fugitive Subjectivity, Travel Writing, and the Gaze.” Cultural Studies 25.3 (2011): 405-425.
Osagie, I. & Buzinde, C. “Culture and Postcolonial Resistance: Antigua in Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place.” Annals of Tourism Research 38.1 (2011): 210-230.
“Spirit of the Amistad: Figurations of Women in Echo of Lions.” Special Journal Edition on Barbara Chase-Riboud. Callaloo 32.3 (Summer 2009): 832-844.
"The Significance of Toni French as a Female Artist in Sierra Leone Theater." A Critical Introduction to Sierra Leonean Literature. Edited by Eustace Palmer and Abioseh Porter. (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2008): 131-144.
“Routed Passages: Narrative Memory and Identity in Alex Haley’s Roots.” College Language Association 47.4 (June 2004): 391-408.
“The Amistad Revolt Revisited in Sierra Leone,” Thresholds of Western Culture: Identity, Postcoloniality, Transnationalism. Edited by John Burt Foster, Jr. & Wayne J. Froman (NY: Continuum, 2002) 89-102.
“When Rain Clouds Gather: Bessie Head,” African Literature and Its Times. Edited by Joyce Moss (Santa Monica, CA: Moss Publishing Group, 2000). 481-491.
"Historical Memory and a New National Consciousness: The Amistad Revolt Revisited in Sierra Leone," Massachusetts Review (Spring 1997): 63-83.
“The Amistad Affair and the Nation of Sierra Leone: The Dramatic Return of Memory,” Contemporary Literature in the African Diaspora. Edited by Olga Barrios & Bernard W. Bell (U of Salamanca, Spain, 1997): 159 - 165.
"Is Morrison Also Among the Prophets? ‘Psychoanalytic’ Strategies in Beloved" African American Review 28.3 (Fall 1994): 423 - 440.
C. Book and Performance Reviews
“Femi Euba,” Post-Colonial African Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook. Edited by Pushpa N. Parekh & Siga Jagne (Westport, CT: Greenwood P, 1998): 164 - 170.
"Chap Am So: The Amistad Victory" by John C. Thorpe, Theatre Journal 50.1 (March 1998): 101-103.
The Slumbering Volcano: American Slave Ship Revolts and the Production of Rebellious Masculinity, Maggie Sale. (Durham: Duke U P, 1997). CLA Journal 42.1 (Sept 1998): 124-28.
Masters of the Drum, Robert Fox. (Greenwood P, 1995). Melus 23.4 (Winter 1998): 219-222.
D. Work in Performance
The Shield. Play. Stage Reading, State Theatre, State College. July 2012.
The Shield. Play. Full Production by Covenant University, Nigeria. April 2010.
The Shield. Play. Full Production by Department of Theatre and Performing Arts, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. April 2010.
The Shield. Staged Reading by Penn State Theatre Department (Pavilion Theatre). May 2008.
E. Work Under Submission
“Cultural Citizenship and Feminism in Nigeria: Molara Ogundipe’s Critique of Traditional and Contemporary Practices.” (With co-author Sylvester Osagie/ Book chapter)
F. Work in Progress
1. The Amistad Legacy: Thomas Tucker in America (book project)
2. The Shield: Memories of Civil War in Sierra Leone (full-length play)
3. “Sierra Leone Theatre: Promise and Peril in Jarrett-Macauley’s MOSES, CITIZEN, AND ME” (journal article)
4. A Vision for Africa
Courses Taught (Oregon State)
FILM 220: Africa in Hollywood Films
ENG 211: Literatures of the World: Africa
ENG 221: African American Literature
ENG 253: American Literature: Colonial to 1900
ENG 322: Studies in Globalism, Text, and Event
LA 399: Black London: From Wheatley to Windrush
ENG 516: Power & Representation: Postcolonial Studies, the Empire Strikes Back
Selected Courses Taught (Penn State)
Contemporary Slavery
Black Modernism: Double Consciousness and Diaspora Literature (400/500 level)
Introduction to African American Writers (100 Level)
American Literature 1865 - present (200 Level Intensive Writing)
The Early African American Novel (400 Level)
Black American Writers/ Modern (400 Level)
Black Women Writers and the Culture Critique (500 level)
African, African American, and Caribbean Women Writers (500 Level)
Third World Feminisms (500 Level)
Identities in Middle Passage /Diaspora Studies (400/500 Level)
African American Playwrights (100/500 Level)
Performance Studies (500 Level)
Teaching and Research Interests
African American Literature
Diaspora/ Transnational Literatures and Theories
African and Postcolonial Literatures
Theater and Film
Third World Feminisms
Modernism
New Slavery
Honors Composition (The Art of Writing)
African Films
Selected Masters Theses Directed
2020 “Otherwise I hear Riffs and Drones: Sound and Decoloniality in Contemporary Latinx Poetics.” Alexander Diaz-Hui.
2019 “Girl Child trafficking: A Global Trend among Girls Experiencing Violence and Neglect in the Yoruba Ethnic Group in Nigeria. A Transnational Feminist Perspective.” Folasade Oludayo.
2019 “Islam, Feminism, and Decolonization: A Philosophy of Liberation.” Azadeh Ghanizadeh.
2018 “Encroachment and Dispossession in Invisible Man and The Sellout.” Jade Becker.
Selected Dissertation Committees (Penn State)
2012 “Instrumental Voices: Experimental Poetry and the Jazz Tradition.” Michael New
2010 “Womanist Restorative Drama.” Phyllisa Smith Derose
2007 “Placing Religion: Twentieth-Century American Women Writers and Spiritual Geography.” Carissa Turner Smith.
2006 “In the Presence of the Ancestors: Culture, History, Memory in the African American Novel.” Timothy Robinson.
2006 “As the Spirit Gives Utterance: The Language and Literacy Practices of Contemporary Black Women Preachers.” Aesha Adams.
2006 “Liminal Identities of Mulattas in African, African American, and Caribbean Literature.” Kadidiatou Gueye.
2004 “Beyond the Imperial Way of Life: Exploring New Forms of Cultural Citizenship in Contemporary US Fiction.” Holly Flint.
2003 “Evangelism, and Resistance in the Black Transatlantic, 1760-1855.” Cedrick May
1999 “Rediscovering their Shrines from the Wreckage: Oralising and the Creative Imagination in Selected African Women’s Drama.” Katwiwa Mule.
1998 “Cartographies of Dislocation: Postcolonialism, Transnationalism, & Third World Feminisms.” Jamil Khader.
Graduate (Masters) Thesis (Oregon State)
2019-2020 “‘Otherwise I hear riffs and drones’: Sound and Decoloniality in Contemporary Latinx Poetics.” Alex Diaz-Hui (School of Writing, Literature, & Film).
2018-2019 “Encroachment, Ambush, and Dispossession in Invisible Man and The Sellout.” Jade Becker (School of Writing, Literature, & Film).
2018-2019 “Islamic Feminisms.” Azadeh Ghanizadeh (School of Writing, Literature, & Film).
2018-2019 “Girl Child Trafficking: A Global Trend in Nigeria in the Yoruba Ethnic Group.” Folsade Oludayo (School of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies).
Selected Undergraduate Honors Thesis (Penn State)
2018 “The Urban School Film.” Benjamin Rowles.
2014 “The Objectification of Women in Film: A Psychoanalytical Reading.” Zachary Weit.
2014 “The Spirit of Culture: An Ecofeminist Analysis of Yvonne Vera’s Nehanda.” Sara Shrivastav.
2003 “Women in the Bible.” Edna Clogg.
Selected Conference Papers Presented
2019 July. MLA International Symposium in Portugal, Chair, “Voicing Black Loss: Cultural & Archival Practices of Remembering Silenced or Forgotten Black Subjects.”
2019 May. African Literature Association, “Sierra Leone Theatre: Promise and Peril in Jarrett-Macauley’s Moses, Citizen, and Me.”
2018 May. “African Modernity- Book Review Roundtable” African Literature Association, Washington DC.
2018 April. “The Amistad Legacy: Thomas Tucker in America” College Language Association, Chicago.
2017 May. “The Amistad Legacy and Public Discourse: The US & Sierra Leone.” Theological Education in Africa (TEA) Conference. TCNN, Bukuru, Nigeria.
2016 August. “African Feminist Initiative at Penn State: Molara Ogundipe as symbol of Excellence.” Decolonising African Feminisms. U of Witwatersrand, South Africa.
2015 October. “Barbara Chase-Riboud: On Slavery and Memory.” United Nations conference on Truth: Women, Creativity, and Memory of Slavery.” Fordham University.
2014 April. “The Evolution of Naming in the Amistad Incident.” New Directions in the Study of the Amistad Rebellion and Atlantic Sierra Leone conference. University of Pittsburgh.
2013 April. “Slave, Advocate, Tourist.” College Language Association conference. Lexington, Kentucky.
2013 March. “These Strains of Denial: Ellison, Bradley, Morrison.” New Jersey College English Association Annual Spring Conference. Seton Hall University.
2012 March. “Spirit of the Amistad.” New Writing After Beloved Conference, University of Nantes. Nantes, France.
2011 October. “Barnabas Root and Thomas Tucker: Amistad Africans in the Post-Civil War South.” ASALH, Richmond, VA.
2010 April. “Innovation in Research.” Faculty Workshop Series, Covenant University, Nigeria.
2007 July/Aug. “Blood Diamonds: Western Film, Black Theatre, and the Implications for Sierra Leone.” Black Theatre Network Conference, Greensboro, NC.
2005 December. “Amistad: Response to Spielberg’s Version.” Seminar. Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria.
2005 April. “Modernism and Double-Consciousness: Gilroy on DuBoisian Scholarship,” CAAR conference, Francois-Rabelais University, Tours, France.
2004 April. “The Historical Memory of the Amistad: Spielberg’s Movie and the Current African Perspective,” ALA conference, U of Wisconsin-Madison.
2003 April. “Modernism, Double-Consciousness, and the Black Diaspora,” CLA conference, Washington DC.
2002 February. “Historical Memory in Toni Morrison’s “Jazzy” Paradise,” 20th Century Lit. Conference, Louisville, KY.
2000 September. “Race, Ethnicity and Power in Maritime America: The Amistad Considered.” Mystic Seaport, CT.
1998 April. “Touching Base with Culture: August Wilson,” Cultural Connections Conference, CLA, Florida A&M, Tallahassee, Florida.
1997 April. “Conceptualizing Blackness in Middle Passage Migrations,” CLA, Atlanta.
Service (Oregon State)
Executive Committee and Budget Committee, School of Writing, Literature, and Film (SWLF)
Junior Faculty Mentor, Faculty Engagement (SWLF)
Promotion & Tenure Committee - SWLF chair (2018-2019)
Pauling Memorial Lectures & Awards Committee, College of Liberal Arts (member)
Search Committee for American Studies professor and Director of MFA program at OSU Cascades (from Oct 2019-Feb 2020).
Service (Penn State)
a. Department Level (The Liberal Arts College)
English: I served the English Department as a member of the following committees: Personnel Committee, Undergraduate Studies Committee, Graduate Studies Committee, African American Emphasis Committee, Job Placement Committee, Awards Committee, and many Search committees
African Studies: I served the African Studies Program as Coordinator/ Editor/Trainer and Faculty Liaison for Web Course AFR 110, and I also served on other committees.
Other Penn State Departments: (Mainly African American Studies, Education, and Comparative Literature), I served in hiring and recruitment areas, and in advisory roles where needed, apart from working with individual students from these units.
b. College Level
Committees: Undergraduate Studies, Academic Integrity, Grades Adjudication, Implementation Committee and Advisory Board of the Africana Research Center. I have also served in hiring, recruitment, consultations, and/or on Ph.D dissertation committees for the College of Education
c. University Level
The University Senate, 2003-2007, 2014-2015; AD-14 Committee; CIC Fellow (Big Ten Alliance), 2005-2006. Chair, Strategic Planning Committee on Diversity, 2015-2016.
d. Diversity Programs
President, Forum on Black Affairs, 2014-2015: worked with constituencies throughout the university administration, including participating in efforts to recruit minority faculty for different colleges.
Chair, Martin Luther King Banquet Committee, 2015-2016. Hosted guests throughout the university system for the MLK – Penn State event.
African Feminist Initiative Center, Advisory Board, African Studies Program
Co-founder of the English Department Women of Color group (reaches out to minority graduate students).
Founding member of American Women Writers Workshop (A faculty/graduate student group invested in reading American women authors) 1998-2005.
Community Service- co-founder of INSPIRE (academic edge learning for black students K-12)
Community Outreach through theatre productions.
Professional Outreach
a. Invited Speaker (Selected Visits)
2020 March. Coleson Whitehead Book Club at Public Library in Corvallis, OR. Co-Chair.
2019 January. Interviewer of Subrina Fulton (Mother of Trayvon Martin) for Martin Luther King celebrations.
2017 November. “Women and Leadership in Africa.” Global Forum, Oregon State University.
2015 October. “Barbara Chase-Riboud: On Slavery and Memory.” Truth: Women, Creativity, and Memory of Slavery conference. United Nations/ Fordham University.
2014 April. "The Evolution of Naming in the Amistad Incident" New Directions in the Study of the Amistad Rebellion and Atlantic Sierra Leone Conference. Pittsburgh University.
2014 March. “Who Pulled the Trigger? Ritual Ending in Femi Euba's One Act Plays” Praise at the Crossroads: The Theatre, Literature, and Theory of Femi Euba Conference. LSU.
2011 February. “Legacy of the Amistad.” Keynote Speaker. Central Connecticut State University.
2010 April. “Theater in Sierra Leone: The Civil War in Reflection.” Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria.
2008 February. “Representing the Amistad.” Albion College, MI.
2007 April. “The Amistad Movie and African Representation.” City U of New Jersey”
2007 September. Keynote Speaker. “200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.” Grand Rapids Community College, MI.
2003 March. “The Amistad Story” Amistad Student Conference hosted at Sacred Heart U, CT
1999 May. “Women and Politics in South Africa,” at Edinboro U, PA.
1998 October. “After the Amistad: A Meditation on Effects and Responses” African Division at the Library of Congress
1998 April. “History, Memory, and Slavery: The Amistad Incident Revisited in Sierra Leone” Northwestern U
1998 January. “An American Forum ‘Cinema as History: Amistad’” American U (DC)
b. Public Media Service
1998 February - WPSX (Channel 3 TV) Interview on “Take Note with Patty Sattalia,” Discussion of the Amistad. (15 minutes)
1998 January - WPSX Radio on “Libri.” Review of my forthcoming book on the Amistad. (25 minutes)
1997 December - WHYY (NPR) “Fresh Air with Terry Gross,” Discussion of the Amistad. (20 minutes)
1997 December - BBC World Service International (WGBH Boston) “Interview with Tony Kohn,” Discussion of the Amistad. (6 minutes)
1993 February WPSX Radio (Penn State) on “Libri” Book Review of In My Father’s House by Anthony Appiah. (25 minutes)
c. Editorial Service
Review Editor: TULSA Studies journal
Guest Editor/Ad Hoc Reviewer for Comparative Literature Studies, Mosaic, Research in African Literatures, Atlantic Studies (journals)
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (granting agency)
Professional Activity (Selected)
2019, October. Fulbright lecture attended, Washington DC
2019 July. MLA International Symposium in Portugal, Chair, “Voicing Black Loss: Cultural & Archival Practices of Remembering Silenced or Forgotten Black Subjects.”
2018 January, Speaker, Pre-Tenure Publication Workshop, Oregon State
2017 November. Panelist, “Women and Leadership in Africa.” Oregon State University
2017 October. Panelist, “Race in America: The Black Woman.” Oregon State University
2016 Dec. Panel Chair, “Atlantic Sierra Leone,” African Association Conference,
2016 Oct. Panel chair, Celebrating African American Literature and Language, PSU
2016 Feb. Ad Hoc Reviewer, Ecumenical journal.
2011 Sept. Speaker. “Collaborative Research across Disciplines” PSU
2009 March Panel Chair at CLA Liberation and Black Writers Conference
2007 April Panel Chair at CLA Spirituality and Literature Conference
2006 April Panel Organizer for CLA conference “From Page to Stage”
2004 June Reviewer for “Oberlin College Nominee for Community Award,”
2004 Jan. “Africana Feminisms” panelist, PSU
2003 Dec. Comp. Lit. Dept. Series, “J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize Winner,” panelist
2003 July-Aug. Fulbright-Hays Summer Fellowship/ Curriculum development, Ghana
2003 Gullah Heritage Festival in St. Helena, South Carolina: related to Biographical project on Director of Penn Center, St, Helena.
Membership in Professional & Learned Societies
African Literature Association
College Language Association
Modern Language Association
Collegium for African American Research
Black Theatre Network
African Studies Association
Awards
2011 Amistad Award Recipient. Central Connecticut State University.
2010 Resident Fellow, Covenant University, Nigeria.
2007 IAHS Faculty Award, Penn State- Theatre Production of play, “The Shield.”
2006 Grant, “Civil War in Sierra Leone” [African Research & Civil War Centers].
2005 Committee for Institutional Cooperation (CIC) Academic Leadership Program.
2003 Fulbright-Hays Summer Fellowship, Ghana.
1998 IAHS Faculty Award, Penn State [Research: Rhetorical Memories of the Slave Trade at Africana Library, Northwestern U, summer 1998].
1994 Research and Graduate Studies Grant (Faculty Award), Penn State.
[Research: Collective National Memory on the Amistad in Sierra Leone].
Local Outreach
Member, Board of Directors, State College Land Trust; Secretary, 2021.
Member, State College Land Trust, Outreach Committee, 2022.