Christopher Abani Receives Distinguished Teaching Award
By Christine Kitano, Student Intern of CHASS College Computing
 Christopher Abani |
The 2004-2005 Non-Senate Distinguished Research and Teaching Award was awarded to Christopher Abani, recognizing him as a distinguished teacher in the Department of Creative Writing. These awards recognize UCR faculty members who were lecturers, researchers, or instructors at the time. Christopher Abani was a lecturer for two years before being made a tenured Associate Professor of Creative Writing this fall.
Known for his often unconventional methods of teaching, Professor Abani was surprised to hear he had been awarded. “I didn’t believe it,” he said. “I run very unorthodox classes so it’s hard to be sure people understand what you’re doing.”
Some of Abani’s “unorthodox” approaches to teaching Creative Writing include filmmaking, music composition, computer programming, hip-hop dancing, quantum physics, and vision quests. “We take walks and I have them go into meditative states. They select objects and then describe why they selected those objects. It’s about figuring out how you see the world and why.”
Professor Abani was born in Afikpo, Nigeria and published his first novel Masters of the Board at the age of sixteen. He was imprisoned two years later by the Nigerian regime, who saw the book as a threat to national security. After his release, Abani was arrested two more times for political activism before finally fleeing Nigeria. “I have always been avant-garde,” said Abani, “which often got me in trouble in school and later with governments.”
Professor Abani began teaching at UCR two years ago as a lecturer. He realized that the obstacle facing most students was the preoccupation with writing “what the teacher’s looking for.” He focuses on pushing students to take risks and go beyond areas they are comfortable with. “The worst things we fear often never happen,” he said. “It’s more important to fail spectacularly than to succeed competently.”
He credits the Creative Writing Department at UCR for allowing him the freedom to experiment with different teaching methods. “We have a great department here with lots of different professors,” he said. “There’s Michael Jayme who’s strong on structure, and Dana Johnson who does wonderful narrative. This leaves me free to do the wacky stuff.” Professor Abani hopes that with all the variety within the department, the students will emerge with a well-rounded view of the craft. “It’s important to understand how you can build structure and at the same time subvert it.”
Professor Abani is currently working on his dissertation for a Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing at USC. His two latest novels, “Becoming Abigail” and “Hands Washing Water” will both be published in 2006.