David Suell is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on African political thought, anticolonialism, philosophy of time, and critical theory. David’s dissertation, “Temporalities of Struggle: African Political Thought and Contesting the Foundations of Colonial Capitalism,” brings these elements together in order to rethink the relationships among time, power, and political membership.

Studying diverse forms of anticolonial action—including subnational resistance efforts, dramatic works, and national policy programs—he examines the theories of time that inform and emerge from African anticolonial projects. The project clarifies how anticolonial actors resisted foreign rule by upending its temporalities, and each chapter demonstrates how their work inspires forceful reinterpretations of nature, democracy, cosmopolitanism, socialism, and founding. David joined the University of Michigan in 2017. He completed a Certificate in African Studies at Michigan in 2019 and MA at the University of Chicago in 2014. His work has appeared in Political Theory and Contemporary Political Theory.