Samuel Totten earned a master’s degree and a doctoral degree at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he studied under Dr. Maxine Greene, Dr. Ann Lieberman,  Dr. Dwayne Huebner, Dr. Lawrence Cremin, and Dr. Karen Zumwalt. Since 1987, Totten has taught at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville,  where he co-developed the Middle Level Master of Arts Program (MAT) and founded the Northwest Arkansas Writing Project (NWAWP). Totten is also being recognized with a Distinguished Alumni Award during this year’s Academic Festival.

Totten’s passion in life and the primary focus of his research is the prevention and intervention of genocide. During the summer of 2004, Totten served as one of the 24 investigators with the U.S. State Department’s Atrocities Documentation Project interviewing black African refugees along the Chad/Sudan border in order to collect data for the express purpose of ascertaining whether genocide had been perpetrated in Darfur.

Totten was a Fulbright Scholar in Rwanda at the National University of Rwanda from January 2008 to July 2008. As a Fulbright Scholar, he developed the first master’s degree in genocide studies to be offered on the continent of Africa, which  is currently offered by the National University of Rwanda.

Totten is co-founding editor of Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal (University of Toronto Press), and has served as a co-editor from 2005 to the present.

Among Totten’s publications are: An Oral and Historical Documentation of the Darfur Genocide (Praeger Security International, 2010); Century of Genocide: Critical Essays and Eyewitness Accounts (Praeger, 2009); Teaching About Genocide (Information Age Publishers, 2004); Genocide in Darfur: Investigating Atrocities in the Sudan (Routledge, 2006).

Totten is also dedicated to the teaching and studying of social (and controversial) social issues. Among the books he has co-edited on social issues are: Educating About Social Issues in the 20^th and 21^st Centuries: A Critical Annotated Bibliography (forthcoming, Information Age  Publishers); Teaching and Studying Social Issues: Major Programs and Approaches (Information Age Publishers, 2010); Addressing Social Issues in the Classroom and Beyond. The Pedagogical Efforts of Pioneers in the Field of Education (Information Age Publishers, 2007);  Researching and Teaching Social Issues: The Personal Stories and Pedagogical Efforts of Professors of Education (Roman and Littlefield, 2006); Social Issues and Service at the Middle Level (Allyn and Bacon Publishers, 1997); and Addressing Social Issues in the English Classroom (National Council of Teachers of English, 1992).