Chaitram Singh is the Gund Professor of Government & International Studies Emeritus and former Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (1997-2001) at Berry College in northwest Georgia. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, he received his M.A. and Ph. D. (Political Science) from the University of Florida. He is the author of four books, including two novels, and was the Associate Editor (Latin America) for the Journal of Third World Studies, 2012-16. His research interest centers on civil-military relations in the Third World.
Chaitram Singh was a winner of the Berry College Carden Award for Excellence in Teaching, Scholarship, and Service (1991). In 2012, he received the Association of Third World Studies Presidential Award for his contribution to scholarship on the Third World. His articles include: “Toward a Reclassification of Military Regimes: The Case of Pakistan,” ( Jounal of Third World Studies”); “Re-democratization In Guyana and Suriname: Critical Comparisons” (European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies); “Military Coups in Pakistan and the Corporate Interests Hypothesis,” (Journal of Third World Studies); “Suriname and the Limits of Consociationalism,” (Journal of Third World Studies)
His novel, The Flour Convoy, was awarded the 2012 Guyana Prize for Literature as the Best First Work of Fiction. His second novel, The February 23rd Coup, was short-listed for the 2012 Best Work of Fiction Award.
Born in Rose Hall, Canje, Berbice, Guyana, Chaitram received his primary schooling at St. Patrick’s Anglican School in Rose Hall, and at Albion Canadian (Presbyterian) Mission School in Albion, on the Corentyne coast. He later attended Corentyne High School and Queen’s College before accepting a U.S Government scholarship to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, from which he graduated in 1973.
In the summer of 1971, he completed Airborne School at Ft. Benning, following which he was sent to West Germany for Army Orientation Training with the 15th Brigade,US Army 3rd Infantry Division, in which Audie Murphy had served. During his final summer at West Point, he was involved in the “Beast Barracks” training of the new cadets, at the end of which he received the Best Squad Leader Award, First Detail, 3rd New Cadet Company.
After Graduation, he returned to Guyana, where he served as a Staff Officer in the Engineer Squadron of the Guyana Defense Force and later a Foreign Service Officer. Following military service, he entered graduate school at the University of Florida earning a an MA in Latin American Studies and a Ph.D. In political science.
Chaitram taught at the University of South Carolina in the Department of Government & International Studies before joining the faculty at Berry College in 1984. From 1995-97, he was the Director of the International Studies Program and, from 1997-2001, he served as the Dean of Humanities & Social Science, following which he was assigned an Endowed Chair as the Gund Professor of Government & International Studies.
CHAITRAM SINGH 