Davu Underwood Seru is the Curator of the Givens Collection of African American Literature and Life and co-author of the book Sights, Sounds, Soul: The Twin Cities Through The Lens of Charles Chamblis, which was a finalist for the 2017 MN Book Award. He has published articles on literature, music, history and culture in American Book Review, The Waker Art Center online magazine MnArtist.org and the French jazz magazine Les Allumés du Jazz. He is currently working on a book project with the artist Seitu Ken Jones.

In 2023, before leaving the English Department at Hamline University, where he had taught since 2011, Davu was awarded the Dr. Colleen S. Bell Outstanding Faculty Award. He continues to teach on- and off-campus.

Davu is also an improvising musician and composer known primarily for his work on drums. His compositions often emphasize interdisciplinarity and draw from archival research. This work has afforded him an international reputation and awards from McKnight Foundation (2020 Composer Fellowship), Jerome Foundation (2017-18 Composer/Sound Artist Fellow) and commissions from Walker Art Center and Zeitgeist ensemble.

Davu remains the longest-serving teaching assistant to Dr. John S. Wright and the longest-serving graduate research fellow to the Givens Collection.