Susan Thomson

Susan Michelle Thomson (born 1968 ) is a Canadian human rights lawyer and professor of peace and conflict studies at Colgate University. She worked in Rwanda for years in various capacities and is known for her books focusing on the post-genocide history of the country, which have received good reviews. Although she initially supported the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), Thomson later reevaluated her position.

Her critical scholarship led her to be declared persona non grata in Rwanda in 2007.

She worked at Hampshire College as a postdoctoral fellow beginning in June 2010 and ending in June 2012.

Research In 2013, Thomson published Whispering Truth to Power: Everyday Resistance to Reconciliation in Postgenocide Rwanda, which investigates how ordinary Rwandan citizens react to state programs mandating national reconciliation. She demonstrates that the state program does not benefit all Rwandans and is intended to bolster the power of select elites. The book was praised by historian Erin Jessee for "offering rich, ethnographically informed insights"; Jessee stated that Thomson "provides a powerful challenge to the claims of both the Rwandan government and the international community that the RPF’s program of national unity and reconciliation is affecting positive change in Rwanda".

In 2018, Thomson published Rwanda: From Genocide to Precarious Peace. In the book, she argues that Rwanda's political culture has not changed significantly since the civil war and finds that the country's "elite rule-makers have little understanding of the lived, ground-level realities of ordinary citizens". Political scientist Aditi Malik writes that Thomson offers "a perspective that Kagame’s supporters have largely missed... she convincingly shows that Rwanda’s rural majority has been left out of the RPF’s vision of security, peace, development, and democracy". International relations scholar Herman T. Salton states that Thomson's arguments are convincing and that her conclusion—that "Kagame’s methods resemble those of his predecessors in more ways than one"—is "ominous... particularly for a country whose people have already suffered so much". Along with her academic work, Thomson also writes affidavits for Rwandan refugees seeking asylum in other countries. April 2021. An Ansoms, Anymar Bisoka Nyenyezi, and Susan Thomson, eds. Field Research in Africa: The Ethics of Researcher Vulnerabilities. London: James Currey.