Invasion of privacy: Professor Olaocha Nwabara
Dr. Olaocha Nwabara earned her PhD in African-American and African Studies, and now currently works interdisciplinarily in the English department here at SUNY Geneseo, teaching classes on Black/African diasporas and literary analysis and critique. Within her courses, Black studies and literary analysis meet to create a more holistic viewpoint of race in literature, including historical and cultural components students might not be able to find in other English courses.
This type of interdisciplinary learning is exactly what attracted Professor Nwabara to her position here; she expresses that after she completed her PhD program, she desired to work with literature and media as a framework for talking about culture; in her view, media is an expression of, “cultural production,” and works to create “cultural artifacts.” Many colleges, however, struggled to envision Nwabara method of interdisciplinary work in an English department, since she did not study English as a major throughout her undergraduate and graduate careers.
While searching for a job she noticed that Geneseo was not only looking for an English professor, but one who specifically could do the interdisciplinary work she so strongly believed she had the tools and desire for. As such, she applied for the job and has been serving as a welcoming, warm, and academically challenging professor since 2019.
One aspect of Dr. Nwabara’s work that I find to be particularly enticing is her focus on research-based work and opportunities at the undergraduate level. She leads a variety of students in directed studies, which allows for them to present their work at panels for organizations such as the National Council of Black Studies, and recently has joined forces with Professor Kodjo Adabra in the 13-year-long study abroad opportunity in Senegal (please email Professor Nwabara for more details). She expresses that she feels so drawn to overseeing this kind of work at the undergraduate level because she wishes she had a better grasp on the skills and information tied to graduate programs at the undergraduate level.
When she began her doctorate program, as someone who had acquired their undergraduate degree in Business, she felt a little left behind in the specifics of writing a research essay for the humanities and social sciences, as opposed to the more technical style of writing that had been expected of her previously. She also felt she had never been adequately informed of scholarship opportunities that could have saved her money while acquiring the two degrees she already possessed before entering her PhD career. Dr. Nwabara attended her first conference at the age of 27, and wishes that she could have some level of comfortability and experience in the realm of not only writing research but communicating effectively before being thrown into the academic deep-end.
With her own experience in mind, she aims to provide increased opportunities for honing skills that graduate-level classes expect its students to have, even though there are plenty who do not, and continues to look at education through a similar lens of the research institutions she hails from. She states that just because SUNY Geneseo has limited graduate programs, and none in her specialties, that does not change the way she views education or alter how she desires to challenge students by giving those with higher aspirations or strong work ethics the opportunity to get their feet wet earlier on and become confident in their ability to seize their desired future. “You are the only one living your life,” she says, and having access to opportunity is the first step to figuring out who you are later down the road.
She leaves us with the sentiment that you won't know who you are when you walk across that stage with your degree at 22, and confining yourself to what you have already achieved and chosen at that point is futile and stifling. Continue to live your life hungry, open, and assured in your compass and what you want to do, and don’t let what you have already done in your life prevent you from the change you might desire later down the line.