EMMA EBOWE

Hello! I’m a PhD candidate in the Department of Government at Harvard University, with a secondary field in African and African American Studies. I am a James M. and Cathleen D. Stone PhD Scholar in Inequality and Wealth Concentration at the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Graduate Fellow at the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics. I am affiliated with the Center for American Political Studies, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, and the Algorithm-Assisted Redistricting Methodology (ALARM) Project.

I’m primarily a political theorist who is interested in race, gender, and democracy, specifically within state institutions, but I also have research agendas in political methodology and applied ethics. My current dissertation project draws from reproductive justice advocacy, as well as black radical and feminist theory to characterise injustice in the contemporary foster system. In political methodology, I am interested in partisan gerrymandering in congressional redistricting, specifically its implications for racial justice and democratic equality.

Research

Working Papers

Relational Violence, Injustice, and the Foster System (2024). Under Review.
Draft available on request

Redistricting Reforms Reduce Gerrymandering by Constraining Partisan Actors (2024).
With Cory McCartan, Christopher T. Kenny, Tyler Simko, Michael Y Zhao, and Kosuke Imai.

Works in Progress

From Republican to Bipartisan Gerrymandering: Comparing Partisan Bias in Congressional Redistricting Cycles from 2010 to 2020 (2024). Poster.

How Should Universities Ethically Engage with the Direct Descendants of those Enslaved by their Faculty, Leaders, and Staff? (2024). With Christopher Hopson, and Danielle Allen.

Teaching

Gen Ed 1041: From Slavery to #MeToo (Undergraduate. Fall 2021)
An introductory course on black women’s voices and black feminist thought in America. Received a Certificate of Distinction in Teaching from the Bok Center.

Gov 10: Introduction to Political Theory (Undergraduate. Spring 2022)
An introductory course on the foundations of political theory. Received a Certificate of Distinction in Teaching from the Bok Center.

Gov 1041/DPI 247: Justice by Means of Democracy (Undergraduate and graduate. Spring 2023)
A course on the relationship between justice and democracy at the intersection of political theory and public policy.

Service

Concentration Advisor, Government Department (2021-2024)
Primary academic advisor for undergraduate students in the Government Department.

Residential Tutor, Quincy House (2021-2024)
On-call mentor and advisor to 470 sophomores and freshmen on personal and academic matters. Further served as the Consent, Advocacy, and Relationships Education Tutor.

Non-Resident Tutor, Leverett House (2021-2024)
Advisor to 40 juniors and seniors on academic matters.