Christian Hosam

Christian Hosam is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Faculty Affiliate of the Albright Institute at Wellesley College. His research interrogates the structural dynamics of the American political economy and their disproportionate impact on Black communities and communities of color, with a focus on how policy mechanisms intended to advance racial justice can paradoxically exacerbate inequalities.

Hosam earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2024, following undergraduate studies in Government and African American Studies (with Honors) at Wesleyan University (2015).

His scholarship centers on Black politics, congressional representation, and the racialized dimensions of American political economy. He examines how institutional constraints—particularly congressional polarization and gridlock—limit transformative policy outcomes for Black communities despite increased descriptive representation, a tension he conceptualizes as 'representational triage.' His work also addresses the American maternal mortality crisis and its intersection with anti-Black healthcare structures.

Publication trends reveal consistent engagement with race, representation, and institutional politics across journals like Politics, Groups, and Identities and Sociological Forum, evolving from media distrust in the Trump era (2020) to contemporary analyses of Black congressional politics (2025) and racial triangulation (2022).

Hosam's research has been supported by prestigious fellowships:

• Social Science Research Council
• UC Berkeley Empirical Legal Studies Fellowship
• UC Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies
• UC Berkeley Center for the Study of Law and Society
• APSA Diversity Fellowship Program

As a new faculty member, his current grant activities focus on his book project The Last Best Hope: Black Congressional Representation and the Elusive Search for Racial Justice, while his public scholarship extends to Dissent Magazine and The Washington Post. Prior to Wellesley, he contributed to interdisciplinary policy research as a Graduate Student Researcher at UC Berkeley's Possibility Lab.