Longman was born in Illinois and graduated from El Dorado High School in El Dorado , Kansas . He earned his undergraduate degree in religion and political science at Phillips University in Enid , Oklahoma . He received his PhD in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison , with a certificate in African studies . At UW , Longman studied with M. Crawford Young , Aili M. Tripp , Murray Edelman , and Jan Vansina , among others . His dissertation focused on the involvement of Christian churches in the 1994 Rwandan genocide . After completing his PhD , he served as the head of the field office of Human Rights Watch and the International Federation for Human Rights ( FIDH ) in Rwanda , conducting research for and helping to write the report , '' Leave None to Tell the Story '' . From 1996 to 2009 , he taught at Vassar College , before moving to Boston University . Longman served as director of the African Studies Center , Boston University from 2009 to 2017 . In 2017 , he became the director of BU 's Institute on Culture , Religion , and World Affairs ( CURA ) . He has previously held research and teaching appointments at the Human Rights Center at University of California , Berkeley ; the International Human Rights Exchange at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg , South Africa ; the National University of Rwanda ; Drake University ; and Columbia University
Rwandan genocide
Rwandan genocide
Timothy Longman