"Professor Emmanuel Obiechina received B.A. Honors degree of the University of London in English in 1961 at the University College Ibadan, Nigeria, and his Ph.D. degree in English from the University of Cambridge in 1967. Obiechina began his academic career in the Department of English at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria in 1967 where, in addition to teaching, researching, and supervising undergraduate and graduate students, he held administrative posts as chair of the department of English, dean of graduate school, deputy vice chancellor (academic), and interim vice chancellor. Thereafter, Obiechina was appointed director, Nigerian Universities Office and education attaché at the Embassy of Nigeria in Washington, D.C., from 1987 to 1990, overseeing higher educational matters and relations between Nigerian universities and their counterparts in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean islands. From 1990 to 2003, Obiechina held a number of senior visiting appointments in the United States, including that of visiting scholar at Harvard University’s departments of African and African American Studies and English and American Literature and Language, Langston Hughes Professor of English, African and African American Studies at University of Kansas, Lawrence, Forrest S. and Jean B. Williams/NEH endowed professorship in the humanities at Ferrum College, Virginia, Gerry Carruthers Chair of General Honors, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, and Distinguished Professor of Humanities, University of Pittsburgh, Bradford Campus. Obiechina’s honors include a festschrift entitled Meditations on African Literature and an award for “Humanistic Perspectives on Contemporary Society” from the Ford Foundation and W.E.B. Du Bois Fellowship at Harvard University. He is also an elected Fellow of the Nigeria Academy of Letters (FNAL). Obiechina is the author of many books, including; Masksong for Our Times (Africa World Press, 2003); Language and Theme: Essays on African Literature (Howard University Press, 1990); Culture, Tradition, and Society in the West African Novel (Cambridge University Press, 1975/1980); An African Popular Literature : A Study of Onitsha Market Literature (Cambridge University Press, 1973); and Onitsha Market Literature (Heinemann, 1972). He has also published scores of journal articles and essays on literature, culture, and contemporary politics." ---http://obiwu.blogspot.com/2009/09/emmanuel-n-obiechina-phd.html