Jennifer Hamilton

Jennifer Hamilton is an Assistant Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology, focusing on internalized racism and its implications for political economy of development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her work bridges African scholarly perspectives with contemporary social science methodologies for ethically sensitive large-scale measurement.

Education:

• PhD in Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles
• BA in International Affairs, George Washington University

Research Interests: Dr. Hamilton investigates how internalized racism—where non-White individuals adopt racist attitudes perpetuated by dominant power structures—affects development outcomes in post-colonial African contexts. Her work emphasizes East Africa while addressing measurement challenges in racial identity studies, combining comparative politics with political economy frameworks to analyze colonial legacies in governance and social behavior.

Grants and Collaborations: Research funded by the National Science Foundation, Center for Effective Global Action, National Opinion Research Center, and UCLA's Bendari Kindness Institute supports her work on ethically rigorous causal identification in development contexts.