Stephen Orvis specializes in politics and development in Africa, particularly East Arica.  Current research focuses on the development of civil society and civic education in rural Kenya, based on field research in Kenya in 1999 and 2000.  Author of The Agrarian Crisis in Kenya (University Press of Florida, 1997); "Moral Ethnicity and Civil Society in Africa," Journal of Asian and African Studies, forthcoming.  Former editor of "Issue: A Journal of Opinion".  Served as international election observer in Kenya in 1992 and 1993 "transitional" elections.