Academic article on PCVs in Africa

David Peterson del Mar recently published in the scholarly journal, African Identities (Vol. 9. N0 4, November 2011, 349-361) an article entitled “RERFLECTION At the heart of things: Peace Corps volunteers in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Peterson, who is not an RPCV, is an Assistant Professor at Portland State University for the Department of History and Extended Campus. He is the author of six books, including What Trouble I Have Seen: A History of Violence against Wives (Harvard University Press, 1996) and The American Family: From Obligation to Freedom (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).  He is currently researching American attitudes toward Africa since World War II for his next book which is tentatively entitled, Africa Existenial.

His research for this new book that led him to RPCVs who served in Africa, and the writing that they have done over the years. He wrote me, “I very much enjoyed the research (on PCVs in Africa) — and hope that it will form a chapter in the book.”

Anyone interested in the topic, and would like a copy of his piece, and he quotes quite a few of us in his article, can reach David directly at (delmard@pdx.edu) and see about getting  a copy of his article.  If they have access to a good university library, the library should carry a subscription.  Here is a link to the journal’s website: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/CAFI

I’m pleased to say that a lot of David’s early research was found on the sites Marian Beil and I started years ago that focused on Peace Corps writers.