David Starr Newbury (born 1942) is the Gwendolen Carter professor of

African studies African studies is the study of Africa, especially the continent's cultures and societies (as opposed to its geology, geography, zoology, etc.). The field includes the study of Africa's history (pre-colonial, colonial, post-colonial), demography ...

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. He received his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

in 1979 for thesis titled ''Kings and clans on Ijwi Island (Zaire), c. 1780-1840'' under the supervision of

Jan Vansina Jan Vansina (14 September 1929 – 8 February 2017) was a Belgian historian and anthropologist regarded as an authority on the history of Central Africa, especially of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. He was a ...

. His academic work has three major foci within

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

and

Central Africa Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, ...

. The first was pre-colonial societal transformation in the Kivu Rift Valley. The second was how a

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

n famine in the late 1920s reinforced colonial rule. The final major focus was the transformation of a

hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

society in the eastern

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

into an agricultural economy. His recent work has included studies of the historical roots of Central African violence in the late 1990s to present.David Newbury
faculty bio,

René Lemarchand René Lemarchand (born 1932) is a French- American political scientist who is known for his research on ethnic conflict and genocide in Rwanda, Burundi and Darfur. Publishing in both English and French, he is particularly known for his work ...

states, "No attempt to grasp the historical context of genocide n Rwandacan ignore

Catherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Christ ...

and David Newbury’s seminal contributions." Newbury is the chair of the Five College African Studies Council, is a member of the Program Committee of the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA) and is member of the AHA Nominating Committee. The chair of the Graduate Student Award Committee of the African Studies Association (ASA), he also co-edits, with Catharine Newbury, the Book Review of the ''

African Studies Review The ''African Studies Review'' is a Peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal covering African studies. The journal also publishes book and film reviews. The journal was established in 1958 as the ''African Studies Bulletin'', obtaining its curr ...

'', the ASA academic journal.

Publications

* * * * * *

External links

Faculty biography

References

1942 births University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Smith College faculty 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Historians of Africa Living people American male non-fiction writers {{US-historian-stub