Archibald Wickeramaraja Singham, also known as Archie Singham or A. W. Singham (1932-1991) was a Sri Lankan political scientist and historian, professor of political science at

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

. He was an authority on the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

and a participant in the

Non-Aligned Movement The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide. The movement originated in the aftermath o ...

Life

Archie Singham was born in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

to Sri Lankan parents. He was educated in Sri Lanka before doing his bachelors at

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

. He married Shirley Hune, who later became the associate provost of

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

. Singham became one of the founding members of the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies – Mona, and taught there from 1960 to 1970. He also gained a masters from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, and in 1967 completed his Ph.D. there. Singham taught briefly at the University of Michigan before being one of the black scholars recruited by

Andrew Billingsley Andrew Billingsley, Ph.D. (born March 20, 1926) is an American sociologist, author, lecturer, and college professor who served as the 8th President of Morgan State University from 1975 to 1984. Biography Billingsley was born on March 20, 1926 i ...

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...

at the end of the 1960s. He also taught at the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

in England before moving to Brooklyn College in 1978. In testimony to the US Congress, Singham criticized the 1983

United States invasion of Grenada The United States invasion of Grenada began at dawn on 25 October 1983. The United States and a coalition of six Caribbean nations invaded the island nation of Grenada, north of Venezuela. Codenamed Operation Urgent Fury by the U.S. military, ...

, and called for the US to withdraw its troops. Singham died on 13 March 1991. Two books on peace were dedicated to Singham's memory."To the memory of Archie Singham (1932-1991): ardent, impassioned, much missed struggler for Peace." His son is the software entrepreneur Roy Singham.

Works

* * ''Readings in government and politics of the West Indies''. Kingston, Jamaica: Printed by Instant Letter Service Co., 1967. * ''The hero and the crowd in a colonial polity''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968. * * (with N. L. Singham) * (ed.) ''The Commonwealth Caribbean into the seventies : proceedings of a conference held on 28–30 September 1973 at Howard University, Washington, D.C.'' Montreal: Center for Developing-Area Studies, McGill University, 1975. * (ed. with Tran Van Dinh) ''From Bandung to Colombo : conferences of the non-aligned countries, 1955-75''. New York: Third Press Review Books, 1976. * * (ed.) ''The Nonaligned movement in world politics: a symposium held at Howard Univerty. Includes proceedings of the Sri Lanka Nonalignment conference''. Westport, Conn.: Lawrence Hill, 1977. * (with Shirley Hune) ''The non-aligned movement and the Namibian question''. Chandigarh, India: Centre for Research in Rural & Industrial Development, 1985. * (with Shirley Hune) ''Non-alignment in an age of alignments''. Westport, Conn.: L. Hill; London: Zed Books, 1986.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Singham, Archie 1932 births 1991 deaths Wesleyan University alumni University of Michigan alumni Academic staff of the University of the West Indies University of Michigan faculty Howard University faculty Brooklyn College faculty Sri Lankan political scientists 20th-century Sri Lankan historians People from British Ceylon American people of Sri Lankan Tamil descent 20th-century political scientists