Prof. David Edwards

David B. Edwards is the James N. Lambert '39 Professor of Anthropology at Williams College, where he has been a faculty member since the 1980s. He holds a B.A. from Princeton University and both an M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan. His academic focus includes documentary film, visual culture, humanitarianism, political violence, and the sociocultural dynamics of Afghanistan, the Near East, and South Asia.124

Edwards has authored several significant publications, including Heroes of the Age: Moral Fault Lines on the Afghan Frontier (1996) and Before Taliban: Genealogies of the Afghan Jihad (2002). His 2017 work, Caravan of Martyrs: Sacrifice and Suicide Bombing in Afghanistan, received the American Ethnological Society's Senior Book Prize in 2018, highlighting his extensive engagement with Afghan culture and politics over nearly four decades.34

In addition to his teaching and writing, Edwards has directed the Afghan Media Project at Williams College, which aims to support Afghan journalists and document the country's conflicts. He has also produced documentary films, such as Kabul Transit (2006), contributing to educational resources on Afghanistan.1234