By Titilope Ogundele, Reporting
THE 5th Biennial Conference of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan, was held on the university’s campus from 22nd to 25th July 2025. The international conference, which spanned four days, drew over 400 participants from Nigeria, Africa, the UK, and other parts of the world.
The theme of the conference, “The New Humanities and Humanistic Development in Africa”, attracted scholars in the humanities from various universities and higher institutions of learning within and outside Nigeria.
The event commenced with a pre-conference workshop held on Tuesday. The workshop, facilitated by Professor Adebola Ekanola, was organised for postgraduate students and other scholars. The facilitator, a former Dean of the Faculty and former Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, guided participants through the research process, from conception to actualisation.
The opening ceremony took place on Wednesday, 23rd July, at Trenchard Hall. The keynote lecture was delivered by Professor Sola Akinrinade, President of the Nigerian Academy of Letters and pioneer Vice-Chancellor of Osun State University. Other activities at the opening ceremony included a symposium titled ‘Professionalism and the Future of Humanistic Studies’. The ceremony concluded with the presentation of awards to notable individuals and distinguished alumni of the Faculty.
Some of the awardees included Mr Taiwo Adisa of The Nigerian Tribune, Professor Remi Raji, Professor Wole Oyetade, and Professor Oyetade, the current Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan.
The lead paper presenters were Professor Tunde Opeibi-Davies, Director of the Digital Humanities Centre at the University of Lagos, and Professor Christopher Agulana, Head of Bioethics and Medical Humanities at the University of Ibadan.
The conference also featured parallel sessions where scholars presented papers engaging with the sub-themes of the conference, such as Humanity and the New Humanities, Digital Humanities and the New Media, the New Humanities and Globalisation, the Humanities and Artificial Intelligence, and Entrepreneurship and the Humanities in Africa, among others.
The conference served as a platform for scholars in the humanities to reshape the future of the discipline. It was a clarion call to scholars to explore the opportunities and potential offered by Artificial Intelligence in advancing humanistic studies.
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