Alison L. Des Forges 1942 - 2009

CURRICULUM VITAE

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Education

Yale University
PhD (1972) African History
MA (1966) African Studies

Radcliffe College
AB (1964) European History

Teaching Positions

Visiting Assistant Professor, University of California at Berkeley (Spring 2002)
Adjunct Professor of History, State University of New York at Buffalo (1990 – 1991)
Visiting Lecturer, Department of History, State University College at Oswego (1984 – 1985)
Visiting Lecturer, Millard Fillmore College, SUNY Buffalo (Summer 1973, 1974)
Lecturer, Department of History, Middlebury College (1970 – 1971)
Teaching Assistant, Yale University (1965 – 1966)

Human Rights Activities

  • Senior Advisor, Africa Division, Human Rights Watch (2001 – 2009)

  • Consultant to Africa Division, Human Rights Watch (June 1994 – 2001)

  • Principal researcher on Rwanda and Burundi (over 36 field missions), Human Rights Watch (November 1991 – June 1994)

  • Chair, International Commission for the Investigation of Human Rights Abuses in Burundi (1993 – 1994)

  • Co-Chair, International Commission for the Investigation of Human Rights Abuses in Rwanda (1992 – 1993)

  • Member, Human Rights Committee of the African Studies Association

Experience as Expert Witness

  • Eleven trials at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (Arusha, Tanzania)

  • Three Genocide Trials at the Cour d’Assize (Brussels, Belgium)

  • Genocide Trial in Canadian court

  • Trial for violations of the Geneva Convention, Military Court Martial (Lausanne, Switzerland)

  • United Nations Commission of Inquiry concerning the Rwandan genocide

  • Organization of African Unity Investigation by the Panel of Eminent Persons regarding the Rwandan genocide

  • Hearings at the United States Senate and House of Representatives

  • Hearings at the Belgian Senate

  • Hearings at the British Parliament

  • Hearings at the French National Assembly

  • Hearings in proceedings concerning immigration cases in Canada, Belgium, and the United States

List of Publications

  1. Defeat is the Only Bad News: Rwanda under Musinga, 1898-1931 (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 2011). Published posthumously, edited and with an Introduction by David Newbury.

  2. Leave None to Tell the Story (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999), published simultaneously in French translation, Aucun Témoin Ne Doit Survivre (Paris: Karthala, 1999); German translation, Kein Zeuge darf überleben, Der Genozid in Rwanda (Hamburg: Hamburg Edition, 2002); Kinyarwanda translation, “Ntihazasigare n’uwo kubara inkuru”: Itsembabwoko mu Rwanda (Trenton, New Jersey: The Red Sea Press, 2014).

  3. “The Ideology of Genocide,” Issue: A Journal of Opinion, African Studies Association, vol. 23(3), 1995, 44-47.

  4. “Rwanda,” in Human Rights Watch, Human Rights and Communal Violence (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1995).

  5. “Face au génocide: Une réponse désastreuse des Etats-Unis et des Nations Unies,” in André Guichaoua, Les Crises Politiques au Burundi et au Rwanda (Paris: Karthala et Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, 1995), pp. 455-464.

  6. Rwanda, a New Catastrophe (New York: Human Rights Watch, December 1994).

  7. The Aftermath of Genocide in Rwanda (New York: Human Rights Watch, September 1994).

  8. Rapport Final de la Commission Internationale d’Enquête sur les Violations des Droits de l’Homme au Burundi Depuis le 21 Octobre 1993 (editor), Paris: Human Rights Watch, Federation Internationale des Droits de l’Homme, et al., July 1994)

  9. Genocide in Rwanda, April-May 1994 (New York: Human Rights Watch/Africa, vol. 6, no. 4, May 1994).

  10. “Burundi: Failed Coup or Creeping Coup?,” Current History, 93: 583 (May 1994), pp. 203-207.

  11. “Rwanda,” in Human Rights Watch World Report 1994 (New York: Human Rights Watch, December 1993), pp. 33-40.

  12. Beyond the Rhetoric: Continuing Human Rights Abuses in Rwanda, Africa Watch Report, June 1993, pp. 1-29.

  13. Rapport Final de la Commission Internationale d’Enquête sur les Violations des droits de l’homme au Rwanda (editor), Paris, March 1993.

  14. Rwanda: Talking Peace and Waging War, Africa Watch Report, February 1992.

  15. “The Drum is Greater than the Shout: the 1912 Rebellion in Northern Rwanda,” in Donald Crummey, ed., Bandity, Rebellion and Social Protest in Africa (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1985), pp. 311-332.

  16. “Lectures on Selected Topics of African History” given at Beijing University, published in Chinese in China, 1984.

  17. “Kings Without Crowns: the White Fathers in Rwanda,” in Daniel McCall, Norman Bennett, and Jeffrey Butler, eds. Eastern African History (New York: Frederick Praeger, 1969).

Honors and Grants

  • Remaking Rwanda: State Building and Human Rights after Mass Violence, edited by Scott Straus and Lars Waldorf, in honor of Alison Des Forges (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 2011).

  • Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism in Defense of Human Rights. Award(s) made annually, 2009 – present, by Human Rights Watch.

  • Bruno Kreisky Prize of the Renner Institute, Vienna, for best political book of the year, 2003.

  • The Lemkin Award, 2001, awarded by the Institute of Genocide Scholars for the best book on genocide in the preceding two years.

  • MacArthur Fellow, 1999.

  • Social Sciences Research Council and American Council of Learned Societies, Fellowship for research in Rwanda and Germany, 1980 – 1981.

  • Dissertation awarded highest rank in all categories, Department of History, Yale University, 1972.

  • Foreign Area Fellowship for research in Rwanda, Burundi, Belgium, and Italy 1967 – 1969.

  • Sterling Fellowship, Department of History, Yale University, 1964 – 1967.

  • African Studies Council Fellowship, Yale University, 1966 – 1967.

  • General Motors Scholarship, Radcliffe College.

  • Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Radcliffe College, 1964.

Languages

English, French, Chinese, German, Kinyarwanda