Profile

David Vine

Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology

  • Author of Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia (Princeton, 2009), David Vine’s work focuses on issues including U.S. foreign and military policy, military bases, forced displacement, and human rights. He is the co-author, with the Network of Concerned Anthropologists, of the Counter-Counterinsurgency Manual, or Notes on Demilitarizing American Society (Prickly Paradigm, 2009). His other writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian (London), Mother Jones, Foreign Policy in Focus, Chronicle of Higher Education, and International Migration, among others. Island of Shame exposes the history of the U.S. military base on the Indian Ocean island Diego Garcia and the expulsion of its indigenous people. David is now working on a new book about the global network of U.S. military bases overseas. In addition to more than a decade of research about Diego Garcia and U.S. bases abroad, he has conducted research about gentrification in Brooklyn, NY, environmental refugees, homelessness and mental illness, and DC-area basketball. For more information and links to David's writing, see www.davidvine.net.

  • Degrees

    PhD, Anthropology, Graduate Center, City University of New York
    MA, Anthropology, Graduate Center, City University of New York
    BA, Sociology, Wesleyan University

  • Languages Spoken:

    English and proficient French, Mauritian Kreol, Seselwa (Seychelles Kreol); some Spanish and Italian
  • DOWNLOAD CV (PDF)

  • OFFICE

  • CAS - Anthropology
  • Hamilton - 311
  • Mon 8:10-8:40pm EQB 14; Tue 1:30-4:30pm Hamilton 311; 8:10-8:40pm Battelle T-30

  • CONTACT INFO

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  • FOR THE MEDIA

  • To request an interview for a
    news story, call AU Communications
    at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

Teaching

Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities

Research Interests

David’s broader scholarly interests include U.S. foreign and military policy, militarization and U.S. empire, forced displacement and migration, human rights, gentrification, indigenous peoples, race/ethnicity, gender and sexuality, poverty and inequality, the Indian Ocean, urban anthropology, cities and urban development, ethnography and writing ethnography for non-academic audiences, and public anthropology. He is a steering committee member of the Network of Concerned Anthropologists; a contributor to Foreign Policy in Focus, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies; and founding co-editor of the "Public Anthropology Reviews" section in American Anthropologist.

Grants and Sponsored Research

  • 2011  Fund for Constitutional Government, Stewart R. Mott Foundation.
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  • 2009-10  Faculty Research Award, American University, “Bases Abroad: Exploring the Impacts of U.S. Military Bases Outside the United States.”
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  • 2004  John F. Kennedy Research Grant, John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, MA.
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  • 2004  Grant-in-Aid of Research, Lyndon B. Johnson Library, Austin, TX.
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  • 2004  Research Travel Grant, Gerald R. Ford Library, Ann Arbor, MI [declined].

Media Appearances

  • See davidvine.net and cv for additional appearances.
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  • 2009  The Tale of Diego Garcia. The World, PRI/BBC/WGBH, May 28.
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  • 2009  The Untold Story of Diego Garcia. PM, Radio Australia, May 19.
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  • 2009  Island of Shame [interview and excerpt from the book]. Dispatches, Candadian Broadcasting Corporation, May 11/17 [scroll down the page for the episode].
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  • 2008  Radio Netherlands.
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  • 2008  Fox Special Report with Britt Hume, Fox News Network, September 8, 6:00 p.m. EST. Interview clip.
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  • 2008  The Kojo Nnamdi Show, WAMU 88.5 FM, “Social Science and the Pentagon,” August 6. Guest.
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  • 2008  Washington Post, “Military’s Social Science Grants Raise Alarm,” Maria Glod, August 3, p. A5. Quoted.
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  • 2007  Inside HigherEd, “Questions, Anger and Dissent on Ethics Study,” Scott Jaschik, November 30. Quoted.
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  • 2007  The Wide Angle, Newstalk Radio Ireland, Dublin, Ireland, October 21. Interviewed.
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  • 2007  CultureTube Segment 1: Human Terrain System and War In Iraq. Interviewed.
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  • 2007  Time, “Postcard: Diego Garcia,” Massimo Calabresi, September 13. Quoted.

Honors, Awards, and Fellowships

       
  • 2005-2006  Dissertation Year Fellowship, Graduate Center, City University of New York.
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  • 2003  Mellon Fellow in Security Studies, Inter-University Consortium on Security and Humanitarian Action, Ralph Bunche Institute, Graduate Center, CUNY.
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  • 2000-2004  Robert Gilleece Fellowship, Graduate Center, City University of New York.

 

Selected Publications

  • 2011  Public Anthropology in Its Second Decade: Robert Borofsky’s Center for a Public Anthropology. American Anthropologist 113(2): 336-339.
  • 2007  Enabling the Kill Chain. Chronicle of Higher Education, November 30: B9-10.
  • 2003  Billions for Brooklyn—No Questions Asked: The Borough’s New Power Brokers. The Brooklyn Rail, Winter: 2-3. [3rd Place, New York City Independent Press Awards.]

Professional Presentations

·         2012  “Lily Pad” Bases and New Cold Wars: Ansbach’s Place in the Global Transformation of U.S. Military Bases. Militärstadt Ansbach - Blick zurück und nach vorn, [Ansbach as a Military Town: Past and Future] conference, June 16, 2012, Ansbach, Germany.

2012  The Future of U.S. Military Bases Overseas. American Logistics Association Conference, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC, June 12.

2012  Base Displacement: Forced Migration in the Indian Ocean and Beyond. Crossing Borders Convocation: Transcultural Communication and Migration in the Indian Ocean Rim and Caribbean Regions. University of Iowa, March 23.

2011  Islands of Shame: Base Displacement from Diego Garcia to Guam. University of Guam, September 28.

2011  Diego Garcia, Strategic Island Bases, and U.S. Strategy in Asia. Fukuoka City Municipal Building, Fukuoka, Japan, August 1. 

2011  Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia. Munk Centre for International Studies, Trinity College, University of Toronto, March 10.   

2010  Island of Shame: Methods, Ethics, and Ethnographies of Empire. Department of Anthropology Colloquia Series, Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, May 7 

2010  Diego Garcia, Overseas Military Bases, and Foreign Policy. Washington, DC Area Retired Foreign Service Officers Association, Chevy Chase, MD, April 27.

2009  Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia. European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium, July 6.  

2008  Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia. AAA Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, Nov 20.   

2008  Development & Destruction in the Indian Ocean: History of the Chagossians. “The Fate of the Chagossians,” VU University, Amsterdam, Aug 22.  

2008  The Right to Return: The Secret History of Exile and Empire on Diego Garcia.  Invited lecture, Colby College, Apr 14.   

2007  Anthropologists Find another Way in the War on Terror. Washington Association of Practicing Anthropologists, Nov 13. 

2007  Making Anthropology a Tool for Progressive Social Change. Department of Anthropology, University of Virginia, Oct 26-27. 

2007  On Structural Forces and the Agents of Policy. Ethnographies of Foreign Policy, Watson Institute, Brown University, Mar 22-23.   

2006  “Who Responsible?”: Cause & Prevention in Involuntary Displacement & the Question of “Environmental Refugees.” UNFPA, Marrakech, May 11. 

2001  Development or Displacement?: The Brooklyn Academy of Music & Gentrification in Fort Greene. Gotham History Festival, CUNY, Oct 7.

Films/Documentaries

 

Professional Services

  • Expert witness. Research for US and UK lawsuits brought for Chagossians by attorneys Michael Tigar (Washington, DC) and Richard Gifford (London), 2001-present.
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  • Co-editor, "Public Anthropology Reviews," American  Anthropologist, 2009-2012.

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