Hannah Waits

Hannah Waits is a Lecturer in the Department of History and Literature at Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She specializes in 20th- and 21st-century US history, focusing on politics, race, sex, religion, and transnational dynamics. Waits earned her PhD in US History from UC Berkeley and held postdoctoral fellowships at Dartmouth College and Harvard University. She is currently revising her first book manuscript, The Missionary Majority, which examines how global missionary work shaped conservative political movements in the US. Her research has been supported by fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Henry Luce Foundation, and others.

Waits teaches courses on empire, US foreign relations, civil rights, NGOs, and religion's role in politics. She emphasizes historical analysis to contextualize present-day issues, equipping students to understand power structures and societal change. Her teaching excellence has earned five awards in US History, Latin American History, and Ethnic Studies.

Her recent articles explore global AIDS work and missionary influence on US education systems. She is set to teach a seminar on 'Race and Empire in the Americas' in Fall 2024.