Don Gordon has been the Executive Director of the Riley Institute at Furman since 1999. Prior to that, he served as Chair of the Department of Political Science and Director of Furman’s award-winning Study Away Programs in East and Southern Africa.

Professor Gordon’s academic training is in African and Middle Eastern Politics, State and Local Government, Political Economy, and Methodology. His main academic focus is on the political economies of distressed areas. With his spouse April Gordon, Professor of Sociology, he is the author and editor of, Understanding Contemporary Africa (now in it’s fourth edition), the nation’s most frequently chosen text focused on contemporary Africa, and the principal text used by the US State Department in training political officers for Africa.

Dr. Gordon is a graduate of the University of South Florida with Master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Florida. A native of Tampa, he is has been a resident of South Carolina since the early 70s. He resides in Rock Hill, Greenville, and Mt. Pleasant and considers all South Carolina to be home.

While on leave from Furman he has served as Executive Director and Chief of Staff of a Congressional Office (FL-5th) and Counsel for the House Sub-Committee on the City of the Banking and Urban Affairs Committee.