Michael Hanchard facts for kids

Michael Hanchard is an American professor who studies politics. He is known as the Gustave C. Kuemmerle Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He also leads a project there called the Marginalized Populations Project. Professor Hanchard studies how different countries' governments work (this is called comparative politics). He also looks at big ideas about politics (political theory). He tries to understand why people sometimes feel very strongly about their own country (nationalism) or dislike people from other places (xenophobia), especially in countries where people vote for their leaders (democracies).

Michael Hanchard's Education and Early Career

Michael Hanchard studied international relations at Tufts University. He earned his first degree there in 1981. He then got a master's degree in international relations from The New School for Social Research in 1985. Later, he earned his PhD in politics from Princeton University in 1991.

Before joining the University of Pennsylvania, Professor Hanchard taught at other universities. He was a professor at The University of Texas at Austin. Then he worked at Northwestern University. At Northwestern, he directed the Institute for Diaspora Studies. After that, he taught at Johns Hopkins University, starting in 2006.

Professor Hanchard's Work and Research

Professor Hanchard has written four books. He has also written many chapters for other books and articles for academic journals. These journals include Public Culture and Theory, Culture & Society.

First Book: Orpheus and Power

His first book, Orpheus and Power, was published in 1994. It came from his PhD research. The book looked at social movements by Afro-Brazilians in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil. He used old records and interviews to write it.

He argued that unfairness and racism in Brazil continue because of efforts to stop racial groups from uniting. Professor Hanchard interviewed 60 Afro-Brazilian activists. He found that a lack of group unity made it hard for them to form strong political movements. These movements would have fought against unfair treatment.

The Spectre of Race: A Key Book

In 2018, Professor Hanchard published The Spectre of Race: How Discrimination Haunts Western Democracy. This book suggests that racism and xenophobia are not new problems. Instead, he argues they have always been part of how democracies work. He says that unfair rules have been built into democratic systems for a long time.

A political scientist named Lilly Goren described the book as a "rich and complex examination." She said it explores discrimination in general, and racial discrimination specifically. She noted how discrimination has "shaped the structures and institutions of western democracies."

The Spectre of Race won an important award in 2019. It received the Ralph J. Bunche Award from the American Political Science Association. This award goes to the best scholarly work in political science. It honors books that explore different cultures and groups living together. The award committee called it an "outstanding contribution" to understanding racial and ethnic power differences.

Helping Marginalized Groups

Professor Hanchard has also served as the head of the Africana Studies department at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the director of the Marginalized Populations Project there. This project studies how governments treat groups of people who do not have enough protection from the state. He started this project after seeing how vulnerable Afro-Brazilian children were in Brazilian society and politics during his research.

Visiting Positions and Media Mentions

From 2014 to 2015, Professor Hanchard was a member of the School of Social Science at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study. He has also been a visiting professor in many places around the world. These include Harvard University, the Federal University of São Carlos in Brazil, Sciences Po in France, and the University of Ghana in Africa.

Professor Hanchard's work has been mentioned in several news outlets. These include The Nation, NPR, New Statesman, and The New Republic. His book The Spectre of Race was even listed by Times Higher Education as one of the "best books of the season" in winter 2018.

Selected Books by Michael Hanchard

• Orpheus and Power: Afro-Brazilian Social Movements in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil, 1945-1988 (1994)
• Racial Politics in Contemporary Brazil (1999)
• Party/Politics: Horizons in Black Political Thought (2006)
• The Spectre of Race: How Discrimination Haunts Western Democracy (2018)

Selected Awards Received

• Ralph J. Bunche Award, American Political Science Association (2019)