David Buchanan received his Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania in 2023. He received his BA in English and Economics from Fordham University in 2015 (summa cum laude) and his MA in English from Penn in 2018. His dissertation, titled "Global Domesticities: The Family Drama and the Capitalist World-Economy," examines the persistent intersection of domesticity and global capitalism in modern drama. It reassesses canonical Anglophone plays to argue that domestic dramas uncover how transatlantic imperialism, racial capitalism, and settler colonialism have shaped domestic conventions and kinship structures throughout the world-system. He has published on Caribbean literature and its representations of the economic austerity programs imposed by the International Monetary Fund. His other research interests include global Anglophone literature; drama, theatre and performance studies; diaspora and transatlantic studies; environmental humanities; world-systems analysis; postcolonial theory; and political economic issues including development, globalization, and neoliberalism.

In 2022, David received the SAS Dissertation Completion Fellowship. From 2018 to 2021, he co-coordinated the Latitudes graduate working group. He also served as Treasurer for the Graduate English Association (2019-2020) and SASgov (School of Arts and Sciences Government) representative for the English Department (2018-2019). As a freelance journalist, David has interviewed three finalists and one winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.