Education | Teaching

The questions about literature that interest Alvan Ikoku are inherently interdisciplinary in nature and scope. And dialogue with students and scholars working in distinct fields has been critical. His research and teaching have therefore been mutually beneficial.

Thus far, Ikoku has taught in three general areas: African diaspora literatures and postcolonial studies, bioethics and medical humanities, and critical discourse within and across disciplines.

At Harvard, Columbia and Stanford Universities Ikoku has taught courses on Literature of Social Reflection, Literature and Global Health, Literature and Human Experimentation, The African Atlantic, Nigeria and its Narratives and The Novel in Africa — each variously cross-listed in departments of literature, african studies, african american studies, race and ethnic studies, human biology and medicine.

Ikoku has received two president’s teaching awards: from Harvard in 2001, and from Columbia in 2010. You can read the citation from Columbia’s President here.

— for more details, see ensuing pages on Ikoku’s research and teaching, as well as a developing vita.