William Beinart (born January 19, 1951, in Cape Town) is a South African historian and Africanist.
[1] He was educated at the University of Cape Town and School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
At the University of Oxford he was a Professor of Race Relations from 1997 to 2015, and held positions as the Director of the African Studies Centre (2002-6 and 2014-5), co-chair of the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies (SIAS, 2006-8), and Director of Graduate Studies at the African Studies Centre, St Antony's College (2009-13).
Beinart was chair of the Board of the Journal of Southern African Studies from 1992-8 and President of the African Studies Association of the UK from 2008-10.
[2] His research focuses on South Africa and on the developments of racism.