Dr. Aimable Twagilimana has been appointed as a Distinguished Service Professor by the State University of New York (SUNY) Board of Trustees. The appointment was confirmed on Tuesday, May 2.
Twagilimana, who has been with Buffalo State University for 28 years, is said to have demonstrated a commitment to academic excellence and student success.
Among other things, he has received more than 15 grants—from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the United States Information Agency, the British Council, and Buffalo State’s Provost’s Incentive grant, all to pursue additional study and attend conferences.
He is the author of the famed 'The Debris of Ham: Ethnicity, Regionalism, and the 1994 Rwandan Genocide', a book exploring the causes of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi.
Twagilimana holds a doctorate in English, with a focus on American literature and critical theory, and a master of business administration (MBA), both from the University at Buffalo.
In addition to his teaching role, Twagilimana has served as a visiting professor at the University of Kibungo in Rwanda and was awarded a Fulbright to teach courses in language and linguistics at the College of Education at the University of Rwanda.
He has also served as director of the African Studies Program at Buffalo State University and organized symposiums covering African, Caribbean, and African American studies.
Twagilimana's achievements extend beyond his academic work. He has received his fifth Fulbright fellowship, which is dedicated to fostering mutual understanding between the people of the United States and those of other countries. The Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board has selected him for the Fulbright Award to Rwanda for the upcoming academic year.
The induction ceremony for Twagilimana into the SUNY Distinguished Academy will be held in June this year, in Albany.