- Technology, Culture And Society On Front Burner
Come Thursday, July 4 at 12 noon, leading scholars, industry experts, policy formulators and political leaders will converge on the campus of Nigeria’s premier Technical University, First Technical University (Tech-U), Ibadan to discuss the place of technology in societal development.
Titled “Culture, Technology and Society, the lecture is first in the series of Distinguished Annual University Lecture to be organized by the University and it will be delivered by Professor Toyin Falola, an eminent historian and the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin and the Kluge Chair of Countries and Culture of the South, the Library of Congress in Washington DC, USA.
According to a statement released by the University, the lecture has been conceived to bridge the existential gulf between the ivory tower and the town, with a view to provoking deep, critical reflection about the state of the Nigerian society, its realities vis-à-vis developmental aspirations.
“Through this Lecture Series, we seek to interrogate our society and engage critical stakeholders, with a view to generating ideas that could translate to policy and developmental options or provide insights into the past, with a view to gaining clearer perspectives about the present and the future in the bid to ensure that our nation successfully navigate the labyrinth of developmental vortex”, the statement reads.
Engineer Seyi Makinde, the Governor of Oyo State and Visitor to the University, is expected at the event as the Special Guest of Honour.
As part of activities for the lecture, Engineer Makinde will perform foundation-laying for the IGR-funded Workshop and Laboratory Complex of the University while also commissioning newly completed lecture theatres. Also, Tech-U students will exhibit array of products from Technical and Vocational Training programme.
The Guest Lecturer, Professor Falola, an illustrious Oyo son with over 200 published books and countless lectures to his name, is a first-class scholar whose footprints are firmly etched on global scholarship. He has received numerous career and lifetime awards and honors in various parts of the world, including The Lincoln Award, Nigerian Diaspora Academic Prize, Cheikh Anta Diop Award, Amistad Award, SIRAS Award for Outstanding Contribution to African Studies, Africana Studies Distinguished Global Scholar Lifetime Achievement Award, Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, Fellow of the Historical Society of Nigeria, and The Distinguished Africanist Award and several honorary doctorates.
Packaged by Mayowa Owogbade
