Ph.D. History, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, U.K., (August 1996) Thesis: `Land, Labour, and Cattle: the Political Economy of Zululand, c. 1930-1950'. Supervisor: Prof. Shula Marks.
M.A. History, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa (April 1991) Thesis: `The Impact of European Land Delimitations and Expropriations on Zululand, 1880-1920'.
2012-present: Professor of History and Chair; Department of History and Geography,
Georgia College & State University. Responsible for complement of twelve full-time tenured and tenure-eligible faculty, one full- time instructor and one administrative assistant, oversight of two B.A. degree programs, one in history and one in geography, certificate programs in Global Foodways and GISc, and previously one graduate program in history. Duties include supervision of coordinators for Geography and History undergraduate curricula and assessment, managing the budget, assessment, program development, staffing and teaching world and African history.
Key initiatives:
-Development of digital humanities initiatives
-Strategic Development of Department Diversity and Inclusivity Action Plan
-Development and support of certificate programs in Global Foodways, GISc and Sustainability.
-Development of Foodways collaborative certificate program
-Successful redirection of History program through the deactivation and closure of long under-performing M.A. to a new focus on transformative engaged curriculum for the B.A. in history
-Chair, COAS Digital Humanities Initiative, Georgia College, 2020-
-Representative, Regents Academic Advisory Council for the Humanities, University System of Georgia, 2019-2021
-Division leader for the chairs of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Georgia College, 2017-2019
-Chair, search committee for chair of the Department of English, Georgia College, 2019
-Planning Committee, Chairs’ Development Workshop Series, Georgia College. 2019-2020
Chair, search committee for chair of the Department of Professional Learning and Innovation, 2017
-Chair, search committee for AVP International Education Center, Georgia College, 2017
-Completed the Penn State University Academic Leadership Academy, 2016
-Chair of Chairs’ Council, Georgia College, 2015-16
-Establishment and development of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies; served as the first Director of the Center, University of West Georgia
- Successful development of a B.A. degree in Global Studies as a new interdisciplinary program, the first such degree of its kind in the University System of Georgia, University of West Georgia
2008-2012: Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Programs,University of West Georgia. Responsible for establishment and operation of the center, coordination of three major degree programs (Environmental Studies, Environmental Sciences, Global Studies, and six minor degree programs, Africana Studies, American Studies, Canadian Studies, Film Studies, Latin American Studies, Women’s Studies), recruiting of students, coordination of teaching faculty, budget of the center, program reviews, assessment, SWOTS analysis, related CORE courses. See: http://www.westga.edu/xids/
2010-11: Interim Chair, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of West Georgia. Responsible for a complement of ten tenured and tenure eligible faculty, four full-time instructors, two part-time adjunct instructors, an administrative assistant, and eight student workers, with a total budget of approximately $795,000.00. Duties include working with two transitional deans and the department faculty to deal with faculty and staffing changes, planning budget cuts, developing and supporting departmental activities including three study-abroad programs, advising activities, support and coordination of Core and upper-level courses and degree completion, liaise with students and faculty from across the university. See: http://www.westga.edu/~forlang/
Aug. 2007-2012: Professor of History, University of West Georgia
Responsible for undergraduate courses on World History, Global Studies Pre-colonial Africa, Colonial and Modern Africa, The transforming societies of Southern Africa and Graduate level courses on South Africa and Capitalism in Africa (syllabi and teaching assessments available on request).
2002-2008: Director, Global Studies program, University of West Georgia. Responsible for the oversight, coordination and development of this interdisciplinary B.A. major degree program, including development of certificate program, internship program, coordination and teaching of courses in the major and at the introductory level, annual reviews, advising of all students, coordination of faculty offerings in the degree and development of study abroad opportunities.
Aug. 2002-Aug. 2007: Associate Professor of History, Department of History, University of West Georgia. Responsible for undergraduate courses on World History, Global Studies Pre-colonial Africa, Colonial and Modern Africa, The transforming societies of Southern Africa and Graduate level courses on South Africa and Capitalism in Africa (syllabi and teaching assessments available on request).
Sept. 1997- June 2002: Assistant Professor of History, Department of History, State University of West Georgia. Responsible for undergraduate courses on World History, Pre-colonial Africa, Colonial and Modern Africa, The transforming societies of Southern Africa and a Graduate level course on Capitalism in Africa.
August 1996-June 1997: Visiting Assistant Professor of History, Department of History, University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Responsible for African history courses: Pre-colonial Africa, Colonial and Modern Africa, The transforming societies of Southern Africa (syllabi and teaching assessments available on request).
Publications, Reviews, Conference Papers and Presentations
Books
Nelson Mandela: A Reference Guide to His Life and Works. Rowman Littlefield. May 2020.
The Making of South Africa: Culture and Politics. Second Edition, Prentice Hall/Pearson. August, 2012.
Places of Encounter. Time, Place, and Connectivity in World History. Volumes I and II, Co-edited with Elaine MacKinnon, Westview, Boulder CO, April 2012.
An Introduction to Global Studies. Co-authored with Pat Campbell and Christy Stevens, (April, 2010), Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, UK.
The Making of South Africa: Culture and Politics, 2004, Prentice Hall/Pearson Publishers, Saddle River, NJ. Reviews available on request.
Edited Journal
“(Un) Healthy Interiors: Contestations at the intersection of public health and private space” Special Issue of Studies in the Social Sciences, Vol. 38,July 2005, co-edited with Dr. J. Ablard, includes a co-authored introduction to the issue.
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
‘Congresswoman Frances Payne Bolton and the Trip to Africa, 1955’ African Studies QuarterlyVol.18, Issue 2, February 2019.
‘A Principled Faculty Evaluation Process Directed Toward Faculty Growth’ with, Larbi Oukada and Costas Spirou, The Department Chair, Winter 2015, pp. 5-7.
‘Cape Town South Africa: time place and encounters in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds’ Chapter in Places of Encounter. Time, Place and Connectivity in World History, (Westview, 2012)
‘Chiefs, cattle and “Betterment”: Contesting “Zuluness” and Segregation in the Reserves’ chapter in Zulu Identities. Being Zulu, Past and Present, edited by Ben Carton, Jabulani Sithole and John Laband, pp. 250-56.University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2008, pp. 250-56.
‘Africans and the myth of rural retirement in South Africa, c.1900-50’. The Journal of Cross Cultural Gerontology for a special issue on Aging in Africa, Dec. 2007, pp. 161-179.
‘Negotiating the political practice of the state: The case of reclamation, resistance and “betterment” in Zululand.’ in Clifton Crais (ed.) The Culture of Power in Southern Africa, Heinemann Press (Portsmouth, 2003). pp. 65-90.
‘Chiefly Authority and Leap-frogging Headmen in Zululand, South Africa, c. 1930-50', Journal of Southern African Studies, Volume 27, No. 3, Sept. 2001, pp. 567-590.
‘“Of Oxford Bags and Twirling Canes”: Native Anti-Malaria Assistants, The State and Popular Responses to Anti-Malaria Campaigns in Early Twentieth Century Zululand’, Radical History Review, No 80, Spring 2001, pp. 75-99.
‘Malaria Epidemics in Early Twentieth Century Zululand, South Africa.’ in Aktual’nye problemy zdorov’ia naseleniia (Current Problems in Public Health), Birskii State Pedagogical Institute, Birsk, Russia, 2000, pp. 133-143.
‘The Persistence of the Cattle Economy in Zululand, South Africa, 1900-1950', Canadian Journal of African Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1, 1999, pp. 98-136.
Review Essays
‘Precarity And Performance: The Production Of Ngoma Dance And Rooibos Tea As Cultural Commodities In The Post-Apartheid Heritage Industry’, African Studies Quarterly Vol. 18, No. 1, Sept. 2018, pp. 73-78.
‘Radical History and the Struggle Revisited: The Cambridge History of South Africa’, African Studies Quarterly, Vol. 13, No 3, Summer 2012, pp. 67-71
Encyclopedia Entries
“Segregation, 1910-1948” In Encyclopedia of South African History, Lynne Rienner , Sept. 2011.
‘Durban’ in Encyclopedia of African History, K. Shillington Editor (Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, U.K.), Nov. 2004.
‘The Pedi Polity’, in Encyclopedia of African History, K. Shillington Editor (Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, U.K.), Nov. 2004.
‘The Anglo-Zulu War’ in Encyclopedia of African History, K. Shillington Editor (Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, U.K.), Nov. 2004.
‘Shaka Zulu’ in Encyclopedia of African History, K. Shillington Editor (Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, U.K.), Nov. 2004.
‘Praise Poets’, Censorship: An International Encyclopedia (Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, U.K). Nov. 2001.
‘The Dutch Reformed Church’, Censorship: An International Encyclopedia (Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, U.K). Nov. 2001.
‘Alex La Guma’, in Censorship: An International Encyclopedia (Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, U.K). Nov. 2001.
Book Reviews:
Nolwazi Mkhwanazi and Lenore Manderson (Eds.) Connected lives: families, households, health and care in South Africa, Choice, Feb 2021.
Louise Green, Fragments from the history of loss: the nature industry and the postcolony. Pennsylvania State, 2020, Choice, Dec. 2020
Joël Nore (ed.), Social im/mobilities in Africa: ethnographic approaches, Choice, June 2020
M. Newitt, A Short History of Mozambique, Choice, April 2018
Jean and John Comaroff, The Truth About Crime: Sovereignty, Knowledge, Social Order,Choice, June. 2017
L. Witz, G. Minkley and C. Rassool Unsettled History. The Making of South African Public Pasts. Oxford University Press, Journal of Social History, 14 Dec. 2017
Joost Fontein Remaking Mutirikwi: Landscape, water and belonging in southern Zimbabwe, Choice, May 2016
M. Martin’s The Fortunes of Africa: a 5000-year history,Choice, July. 2015
German colonialism revisited: African, Asian, and Oceanic experiences, ed. by Nina Berman, Klaus Mühlhahn, and Patrice Nganang, Choice, July 2014.
M. Mahoney’s The Other Zulus: The Spread of Zulu Ethnicity in Colonial South Africa, The Historian, Vol. 76, No. 3 Fall 2014
A. Odendaal’s The Founders: The Origins of the ANC and the Struggle for Democracy in South Africa, International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 47, No. 3, 2014
Nugud, Mohamed Ibrahim. Slavery in the Sudan: history, documents and commentary. ed by Sharon Barnes; tr. by Asma Mohamed Abdel Halim, Choice, March 2014.
Klose, Fabian. Human rights in the shadow of colonial violence: the wars of independence in Kenya and Algeria, tr. by Dona Geyer. Choice Dec. 2013.
Kepe, T. and Ntsebeza, L. editors, Rural resistance in South Africa: the Mpondo revolts after fifty years, Choice, May 2012
Renne, E., The Politics of Polio in Northern Nigeria, Choice, April 2011.
Limb, P. The ANCs Early Years, Choice, October, 2010.
Ally, Shireen. From Servants to Workers. South African Domestic Workers and the State, Choice, July 2010.
W. Storey, Guns, Race and Power in Colonial South Africa. African Studies Quarterly, Vol. 11, Nos 2-3, Jan. 2010.
C. Merrett,, Sport, space and segregation: politics and society in Pietermaritzburg. Choice, January 2010.
R. Suttner, The ANC underground in South Africa, 1950-1976. Choice, November 2009.
J. Guy, The Maphumulo Uprising War, Law and Ritual in the Zulu Rebellion, H-Net/H-SAfrica, March, 2008.
P. Alegi, Laduma! Soccer, Politics and Society in South Africa in African Studies Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 3, Spring 2006.
T. McClendon, Genders and Generations Apart. Labor Tenants and Customary Law in Segregation-EraSouth Africa, 1920s-1940s, Journal of African History, Vol. 45, Fall 2004, pp. 341-42.
T. McClendon, Genders and Generations Apart. Labor Tenants and Customary Law in Segregation-EraSouth Africa, 1920s-1940s, H-Net/H S-Africa, Jan. 2004.
A. Booth, Historical Dictionary of Swaziland, in Africa Today, Fall 2003.
K. Jochelson, The Colour of Disease. Syphilis and Racism in South Africa, 1880-1950,African Studies Review Vol 46, No. 1, Spring 2003.
J. M. Kimble, Migrant Labour and Colonial Rule in Basutoland, 1890-1930, Canadian Journal of African Studies, Vol. 36, No.2, pp. 386-88.
B. Carton,Blood From Your Children. The Colonial Origins of Generational Conflict in South Africa, in Peace And Change. Vol. 27, No. 4 Oct 2002, pp. 651-53.
D. Goodman, Fault Lines: Journeys into the New South Africa, Left History, Vol. 7, No. 1, Spring 2001, pp. 160-64.
N.T. Torkington, Community Health Needs in South Africa in African Studies Review, Vol. 44, No. 3, Spring 2001.
R. Cope, Ploughshare of War. The Origins of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, African Studies Review, Vol. 44, No. 3, Spring 2001.
A. Lester, From Colonization to Democracy, African Studies Review, Vol. 42, No. 3, Dec. 1999, pp. 128-130.
C. Alden, Apartheid’s Last Stand, African Studies Review, Vol. 42, No. 3, Dec. 1999, 227-229
J. Brown and M. Prozesky, Gandhi and South Africa in Journal of Third World Studies, Vol. 16, No.2, Fall 1999, pp.214-17.
S. Gastrow, Who’s Who in South African Politics, Vol. 5 in Journal of Third World Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1, Spring 2000, pp.247-50.
Recent Grants
2018-2019 Payne Fund, Grant to support student site visit and research on the renewal of the Royal Museum of Africa, Brussels, Belgium ($10,000)
2019 GCSU Journeys Engaged Learning Mini-grant) to support mentoring undergraduate research presentation by Joshua Astarita, Sylvester Clark, Brianna Davis and Cassandra Gill, 'Confronting King Leopold's Ghost: An evaluation of the re-visioning of the Royal Museum of Africa, Brussels, Belgium'. 2018-2019, ($2000)
2019-2020, Co-recipient (with Peggy Elliot, James Schiffman, Elissa Auerbach, Brantley Nicholson and William Risch) Pilot Grant for developing an Open-Source Historical Game, Affordable Learning Georgia. ($7500)
Resource Geography, Remote Sensing, Geographic Information Systems, Sustainability, Environmental History
Biography
Doug R. Oetter is a Professor of Geography at Georgia College & State University in the Department of History & Geography. He teaches physical geography, resource geography, geographic techniques, interdisciplinary studies, and environmental science. He is the coordinator of the Geographic Information Science (GISc) and the Sustainability Certificate programs. His research is concentrated on the application of remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems to resource development issues, especially land cover change, riparian management, and sustainability. Dr. Oetter is the coordinator of the GC Sustainability Faculty Friends. He is the Faculty Advisor for the Women's Club Ultimate and Men's Ultimate Club, and serves as Course Manager for the Bobcat Frisbee Club. He is President of the Board of Directors for the Central Georgia Rail-to-Trail Association, and Secretary of the Oconee River Greenway Foundation. In his spare time, he enjoys gardening, mountain biking, disc golf, and working on his family farm in Wilkinson County.
University of Redlands, B.A., 1971; Emory University, M.A., 1972; Emory University, Ph.D., 1975.
Research
Dr. Keber continues to research historical topics. The social history of Savannah is the focus of her work, with particular emphasis on immigrants and African Americans.
