Dr. Richard Hunt Davis, Jr. is Emeritus Professor of History and African Studies at the University of Florida. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the African Studies Quarterly (ASQ), which is hosted at UF. Dr. Davis was born in Highland Park, Michigan in 1939. Though born in Michigan, growing up Davis’ family moved around quite a bit and he spent time in Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, and New Hampshire before enrolling at Grinnell College in Iowa in 1957. Davis also met his wife, Jeanne, who was also a student at Grinnell, in 1958. He graduated with a B.A. in history in 1961 and enrolled in the graduate program in history at the University of Wisconsin the same year.
Davis’ interest in African History did not begin until he took a course taught by Philip Curtin about the impact of European expansion on indigenous populations in various areas that fell under European rule. After formally making the switch to African History, Davis also worked with Jan Vansina. Davis then traveled to South Africa with his wife, studying Xhosa and conducting fieldwork in 1965-1966. He returned to Wisconsin in 1966 and began teaching at UF in 1967. Davis received his PhD from Wisconsin in 1969.
Davis had written his dissertation on the study of nineteenth century era colonial and missionary education projects in the Cape Colony in South Africa. During the apartheid era, however, the South African government was wary of researchers, so Davis had to apply for the visa while instead emphasizing for the purpose of obtaining a visa the missionary aspect of his research. After the visa was approved, Davis was careful while conducting his research, particularly given his visa needed to be renewed every 3 months, and only traveled to the townships outside of Cape Town during the last 3-month leg of his trip. He would go back to South Africa in 1969, but then had his visa denied in 1973 and was not able to return to the country until 1996.
When Davis joined the Center for African Studies in 1967, CAS was only 2 years old. Davis was the first individual with a PhD in African History to teach history at UF. In coming to UF, Davis joined Rene Lemarchand (Political Science), Haig der-Houssikian (Linguistics/Swahili), Negussay Ayele (visiting professor Political Science, and first black member of the entire UF faculty), David Niddrie (Geography), and Brian Du Toit (Anthropology) as the core professors affiliated with CAS. Davis would later serve as Director of CAS from 1979 to 1988, and then as the Associate Director and later Acting Director of the International Center (UFIC). His research largely concerns the historical study of plural societies, in which large indigenous populations were displaced and made to live under colonial rule as the dominant authority. Davis retired in 2003, but remains active within the CAS community, having served as editor-in-chief of the African Studies Quarterly for the past eight years.