Amy Gais

Dr. Amy Gais is a Lecturer in the Department of Comparative Literature and Thought and the Department of Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University and an M.A. from the University of Chicago. Previously, she served as a Modeling Interdisciplinary Inquiry Postdoctoral Fellow at the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities at WUSTL.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Political Science with Distinction, Yale University
• M.A., University of Chicago

Research Interests: Dr. Gais specializes in political freedom and resistance to oppression. Her work focuses on African American political thought, dissimulation as a form of resistance, and the intellectual history of race and ethnicity. She is the author of The Coerced Conscience (Cambridge University Press, 2024) and is currently working on a second book project titled Freedom, Dissimulation, and Resistance in African American Political Thought.

Grants & Awards:

• Funded by the Andrew J. Mellon Foundation and the Beinecke Rare Books & Manuscripts Library
• Recipient of the Robert C. Wood Prize
• American Council of Learned Societies Emerging Voices Finalist

Teaching & Future Work: She teaches courses such as Modern Political Thought and Intellectual History of Race and Ethnicity. Her current research explores intersections of freedom, dissimulation, and resistance in African American political discourse.