Michael Hanchard

Michael Hanchard

Gustave C. Kuemmerle Professor, Africana Studies

Michael Hanchard is the Gustav C. Kuemmerle Professor of Africana Studies at The University of Pennsylvania, and director of the Marginalized Populations project.  His research and teaching interests combine a specialization in comparative politics with an interest in contemporary political theory, encompassing themes of nationalism, racism,  xenophobia and citizenship.

His publications include Orpheus and Power: The Movimento Negro of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1945-1988 (Princeton, 1994), Racial Politics in Contemporary Brazil, editor, (Duke, 1999), Party/Politics: Horizons in Black Political Thought (Oxford, 2006) and most recently The Spectre of Race: How Discrimination Haunts Western Democracy (Princeton, 2018) His scholarly articles have appeared in journals such as Public Culture, Political Theory and Social Text. Professor Hanchard received his Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University in 1991, an M.A. in International Relations from the New School for Social Research in 1985, and an A.B. in International Relations from Tufts University in 1981.

He has held visiting scholar and professorship positions at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute at Harvard University, Universitaria Candido Mendes, Rio de Janeiro and the Universidade de Sao Carlos, Sao Paulo (Brazil), the University of Cartagena (Colombia), the Instituto Gramsci in Milan, Italy, the University of Ghana, Legon (West Africa) and the University of Vienna, Austria, and Sciences Po in Paris. 

Research Interests

Comparative Politics (Nationalism, Race and Ethnicity, Social Movements, Political Culture)

Africana Studies

Latin American Studies

Political Theory (Citizenship, Comparative Political Theory)