David Marples

David Roger Marples (born October 17, 1952) is a British-born Canadian historian and Distinguished University Professor at the Department of History & Classics, University of Alberta. He specializes in history and contemporary politics of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.

Education

Marples was born October 17, 1952, in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, United Kingdom, and grew up in Bolsover, a town about away.

Marples initially attended Shirebrook Grammar School (subsequently Shirebrook School, now Shirebrook Academy, and later Keele University, studying English and Sociology, but transferred after one year to Westfield College, which was part of the University of London. He received his BA honours from the University of London in 1975, his MA in History from the University of Alberta in 1980, and Ph.D. in Economic and Social History from the University of Sheffield in 1985. The title of his Ph.D. dissertation was ''Collectivisation of agriculture in Western Ukraine 1944-1951.''

Career

Marples is a former President of The North American Association for Belarusian Studies (2010–15) and was formerly Director of the Stasiuk Program on Contemporary Ukraine at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (2004–14), University of Alberta.

He is regarded as one of the leading Western authorities on the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe (social and political aspects). and as well as the contemporary history and politics of Belarus and Ukraine. He is honorary president of the Belarusian Academy or Arts and Sciences in Canada, and retired Hon. Lt. Colonel, 6 Intelligence Company, Canadian Armed Forces (2006-14).

He has served as a consultant on Belarus to a wide array of government and nongovernmental organizations, including the US Embassy in Minsk, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Canada, as well as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

He is an editorial writer on Belarus for Belarusian Review and writes regularly for the Eurasian Daily Monitor, The Jamestown Foundation. He is a member of the Advisory Board on Belarus for the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He is a member of the editorial board of several journals, including Belarusian Historical Review (Bialystok, Poland), Canadian Slavonic Papers, Nationalities Papers, Eurasian Geography and Economics, and the Journal of Ukrainian Studies.

Political Controversies

In 2015, David R. Marples initiated an open letter addressed to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, calling on him not to sign the so-called anti-communism law and the law honoring the “heroes of the nation”. This letter was signed by numerous historians involved with Ukraine like Omer Bartov, Evgeny Finkel, J. Arch Getty, John-Paul Himka, Kerstin Susanne Jobst, Andreas Kappeler, Padraic Kenney, Mark Kramer, Simon Pirani, Grzegorz Rossolinski-Liebe, Blair Aldridge Ruble and Per Anders Rudling, Martin Schulze Wessel, Anton Shekhovtsov, James Sherr, Andreas Umland, Christine Worobec and Serhy Yekelchyk, . In response, the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Volodymyr Viatrovych, described the mass murders of Poles and Jews by Ukrainian nationalists as mere “individual opinions” and accused the signatories of spreading Russian propaganda.

Personal life

Marples is married and has four children. He lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Publications

Books

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

Selected Articles

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

Weblinks

David R. Marples
at University of Alberta

David R. Marples
at Academia.edu

David R. Marples
at Google Scholar

David R. Marples articles
at Jamestown Foundation (Eurasia Daily Monitor)

David R. Marples
at The Conversation

David R. Marples
at WordPress

David R Marples
at Facebook

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marples, David R.
1952 births
Living people
20th-century Canadian historians
People from Chesterfield, Derbyshire
Academic staff of the University of Alberta
University of Alberta alumni
Alumni of the University of Sheffield
21st-century Canadian historians