Bimbola IDOWU-FAITH
Senior Lecturer
college of Liberal Studies (COLBS)
English Programme
Dr Bimbola Idowu-Faith is a faculty member of the English Programme, College of Liberal Studies, Bowen University. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow of the African Humanities Project (AHP) of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), New York, USA. She conducts her researches in stylistics with interests in digital/literary/multimodal/film texts, humour, (im)politeness, and gender/women. She has published articles and book chapters in both national and international platforms. She is a member of Poetics and Linguistics Association (PALA, UK) and currently serves as the Ambassador of the Association in Nigeria.
Education
- Ph.D. (July, 2012) University of Ibadan, Ibadan. Areas of Specialization: English Language: (Digital) Stylistics
- M.A. (February, 2005) English Language University of Ibadan
- B.A. (Hons) (August, 2001) English, (Second Class Upper Division) University of Ado-Ekiti (Now Ekiti State University)
Research
My research activities have been conducted within the linguistic sub-field of stylistics. Within this area of language study, I have employed both linguistic and non-linguistic models and tools for the description, explanation, and interpretation of the distinctive uses of language in texts, literary texts in particular. Often, my interrogation of style in texts have interwoven with gender issues, digital textuality, experimental orientations, impoliteness, and characterisation.
A crucial contribution that I have made to knowledge is the investigation of textuality in digital literary texts. The advent and explosion of the Information and Communication Technologies in the 21st century have had overwhelming effects on different aspects of human life and reinvented many cultural artefacts including language, literature, text, textuality, and composition. I therefore believe that language is central to the different re(con)figurations made possible through digital technologies and affordances. To this end, I have devoted attention, across different stages of my research, to the investigation of digital literature which is still a grey area in Nigeria. To this end, I examined language and creative freedom in cyberspace in my master’s project and investigated hyperfictional language in two hyperfictional literary texts (Michael Joyce’s afternoon, a story and Megan Heyward’s of day, of night”) in my doctoral thesis. I have also presented conference papers, undertaken a postdoctoral research; written book chapters; and written learned journal articles on the subject. Each research output has succeeded in creating awareness about and arousing interests in digital literature and textuality amongst students and academics and in making me a consultant to many colleagues on digital textuality and its various applications.
In addition, my research into style have also delved into issues of gender with the aim of describing how disadvantaged groups, especially the feminine gender within the patriarchal culture, are represented in texts in order to call for actions that will stimulate respect for everyone within culture.
As current global research now focuses SDG, my research interests have been stimulated to investigate out-of-school children (SDG 4) and FGM (SDG 5.2) which have had little or no attention in linguistic investigations. I am currently leading some colleagues into these areas of research and the findings so far show the great potentiality of the research in contributing to knowledge on SDGs.
In the coming sessions, I am delving into the new research area of corpus stylistics which has had little or no attention in the literature in Nigerian academia. My plan is to chart a rigrous, replicable, and retrievable path for upcoming stylisticians who may be interested in working within this new area of study within the Nigerian academic system.
Institutional Service
- Head, General Studies Unit
- Member: Committee on the Review of Bowen Commercial Services’ Activities
- Member, Business Committee of Senate
Professional Service
- Editing and Proofreading, Voice acting, wordsmithing
- Nigerian Ambassador/Representative – Poetics and Linguistics Association (PALA), UK
- Member, National Organising Committee – 1st International Conference, Corpus Linguistics Association of Nigeria (CLAN)
Selected Publications
- Rotimi Taiwo, Bimbola Idowu-Faith, & Simeon Ajiboye (Eds.) (2023) Transformation of Higher Education Through Institutional Online Spaces. Hershey, New York: IGI Global Publishing Company; ISBN 9781668481226 (h/c); ISBN 9781668481264 (s/c); ISBN 9781668481233 (ebk); pp. xxix + 332.
- Idowu-Faith, B.O. (2023) “Style and the Distinctive Uses of Language in First-generation Private Universities’ Vision and Mission Statements.” In Rotimi Taiwo, Bimbola Idowu-Faith, & Simeon Ajiboye (Eds.), Transformation of Higher Education Through Institutional Online Spaces. Hershey, New York: IGI Global Publishing Company, pp. 179-205.
- Idowu-Faith, B.O. and Adeleye, M. O. (2021). “Doing Things with Poetic Effects: Humour in Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives.” In Niyi Osunbade, Foluke Unuabonoh, Ayo Osisanwo, Akin Adetunji, and Funke Oni (Eds.), Pragmatics, Discourse and Society: A Festchrift for Akin Odebunmi. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Pages 216-243.
- Idowu-Faith, B.O. (2018). “Multimodality and Narrative Themes in Digital Literature: A Social Semiotic Multimodal Analysis of Megan Heyward’s of day, of night.” In Foluke Unuabonoh, Kehinde Ayoola, and Adeyemi Adegoju (Eds.), Explorations in Critical Discourse and New Media Studies: Essays in Honour of Rotimi Taiwo. Glienicke: Galda Verlag. Pages 171-192.
- Idowu-Faith, B. O. & Ogunlana, C.A. (2021). A Feminist Stylistic Reading of Sexist Terms as Gendered Language in Adelakun’s Under the Brown Rusted Roofs. Issues in Language and Literary Studies (IL&LS). Vol. 7(1), pp. 155-168.
- Idowu-Faith, B. O. (2020). “It Never Happened”: The Perpetuation of Female Powerlessness and Male Superiority in Nigerian Christian Films. Imbizo: International Journal of African Literary and Comparative Studies. Vol. 11(2).
- Idowu-Faith, B. O. (2019). Re-Reading Writing and Re-Writing Reading: Experimental Style in Michael Joyce’s Afternoon, A Story as a Postmodernist Hyperfiction. Papers in English and Linguistics. Vol. 20, pp. 67-93.
- Idowu-Faith, B. O. (2019). Style in Rome Aboh’s “hour of truth.” Issues in Language and Literary Studies (IL&LS). Vol. 5, pp. 89-102.
- Idowu-Faith, B. O. (2017). “Impoliteness and the Characterisation of the Malicious Woman in The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives.” Papers in English and Linguistics. 18: 232-261.
- Idowu-Faith, B. O. (2014). “Stylistic Experimentations and Postmodernist Edges in Digital Literature: An Example of Megan Heyward’s of day, of night.” Working Papers: Journal of English Studies, University of Port-Harcourt. 7: 1-26.
- Idowu-Faith, B. O. (2014). “Fictionalizing Theory, Theorizing Fiction: The Stylistics of Return Migration in Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah.” Irinkerindo: A Journal of African Migration. Issue 7. Located at http://www.africanmigration.com