Buckley was born in 1937 in New York City, United States, and grew up in
Queens. His mother, Elaine, was from
Trinidad with Cuban and South Asian heritage. His father, Ralph Buckley, was from
Jamaica with Irish heritage. In 1940, his father worked as a shipping clerk and his mother as a factory worker. Buckley earned his bachelor's degree from
St. John's University, his master's degree from
Hunter College, and his doctorate in history from
McGill University in 1975. Prior to pursuing his doctorate, he taught high school and community college and ran summer youth enrichment programs in New York. After earning his doctorate, he remained in Canada to become a professor and chair of the social studies program at
Vanier College in
Montreal. In 1980, Buckley returned to the United States, joining the
University of Hartford as director of the African American Studies program. During his tenure, the Institute achieved a national profile and "pioneered the creation of an anti-racist, transnational, and interdisciplinary curriculum." The Institute co-founded the Nazrul Endowment Program to fund lectures, arts programs, and human rights initiatives in honor of
Kazi Nazrul Islam. The Roger N. Buckley Award Endowment Fund provides scholarships to undergraduates interested in Asian history or Asian American studies. Buckley described himself as a historian of war and society. Rather than focusing on battlefield conflict, his works explored social, cultural, and racial dimensions of war and military service. Between 1997 and 2016, he wrote a historical fiction trilogy, "Accommodation and Resistance: Three Who Chose Rebellion," in which he unpacked issues of race, culture, nationality, and politics in the
British Army of the nineteenth century through fictionalized portrayals of three British soldiers, each a real-life historical figure: a Black African, an Indian Hindu, and an Irish Catholic. Buckley also penned mystery-thriller novels featuring fictional McGill University history professor and ladies' man Relph Coggins.
Kirkus Reviews reviewed and praised one of these novels. Buckley received fellowships from the
National Endowment for the Humanities,
American Council of Learned Societies,
John Carter Brown Library at
Brown University,
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Sir William Osler Medical Library at McGill, and the University of Connecticut. Buckley was a resident of
Coventry, Connecticut. He was a frequent guest speaker at Windham High School. He died on July 25, 2020. == Publications ==