Leo Kuper
| Leo Kuper | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 24, 1904 Johannesburg |
| Died | May 23, 1994 (aged 89) Los Angeles |
| Fields | Law, sociology |
| Institutions | UCLA, University of Natal |
| Alma mater | |
| Notable awards | 1966 Herskovits Prize |
| Spouse | Hilda Kuper |
Leo Kuper (20 November 1908 – 23 May 1994) was a South African sociologist specialising in the study of genocide.
Kuper was born to a Lithuanian Jewish family. His siblings included his sister Mary (d. 1948), who in later life directed the Johannesburg Legal Aid Bureau.
Kuper trained in law at the University of the Witwatersrand, receiving there his BA and LLB degrees. As a lawyer, he represented African clients in human-rights cases, and also represented one of the country's early non-segregated trade unions. He supported the establishment of South Africa's first legal aid charity.
Kuper served with the Eighth Army in Kenya, Egypt, and Italy, as an intelligence officer, from 1940 to 1946. After the war he organised the National War Memorial Health Foundation, which provided social and medical services for disadvantaged people from all backgrounds.
In 1947 Kuper went to the University of North Carolina, where he earned an M.A. in sociology. He was subsequently appointed Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Birmingham in England.
At Birmingham, Kuper directed a research project intended to help the city of Coventry recover from the bombing it received during World War II. This project culminated in the publication of Living in Towns (1953). Kuper completed a doctorate in sociology at the University of Birmingham in 1952, and moved to Durban, South Africa, as Professor of Sociology at the University of Natal.
Kuper was an active opponent of apartheid. Under his headship, the Sociology Department at the University of Natal was the only integrated academic department in South Africa. Kuper and his colleague Fatima Meer were subjected to surveillance by the apartheid government, and classes taught in the department were infiltrated by government spies, resulting in a chilling effect.
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