Chris Davey

Christopher P. Davey is the Charles E. Scheidt Visiting Assistant Professor of Genocide Studies and Genocide Prevention at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. He teaches Genocide and Civil War in the African Great Lakes Region, and Genocide Prevention and Conflict Transformation. His research explores the connections of genocide across DR Congo and Rwanda, and contemporary perspectives on genocide from identity to diaspora mobilizations of genocide, and climate related violence.

Christopher Davey earned his Ph.D in Peace Studies and International Development from the University of Bradford, and a Masters in Human Rights and Genocide Studies from Kingston University (both in the UK). His doctoral research explored Congolese Tutsi, or Banyamulenge, soldier narratives of genocide with fieldwork in DR Congo and Rwanda. This project’s contribution to African and genocide studies is the reframing of identity categories as social actors within layered relations in episodes genocide. He has taught various history, political science, and ethics courses at Utah Valley University, Brigham Young University, and the University of Bradford. Whilst previously in the UK, he worked as an equity and inclusion strategic lead and project manager in both public and charity sectors, designing transformational change in recruitment and organizational culture.

Davey’s publications include relational sociology analysis of Banyamulenge soldier narratives of genocide in The Journal of Interpersonal Violence. He has contributed to edited volumes comparing nonviolent responses to dictatorship in Kosovo and East Timor, as well as assessing “postgenocide” as a concept for framing climate related and structural mass violence.

Davey’s current research builds on these themes. This includes working on Anglophone Cameroonian diaspora uses of the genocide label, comparing massacres as a phenomenon that shapes narrative identity, as well as developing a decolonized approach to a database of genocide. He also serves as Leadership Board member for an international charity, Education for Global Peace. Here he engages in research and other activities for the promotion and advancement of peace education.