Welcome

I am a political theorist at the University of Cambridge, with interests in the history of political thought, the co-development of democratic ideas and empire, and race. I am currently finishing my PhD and will in October 2024 take up the A. H. Lloyd Junior Research Fellowship at Christ’s College, Cambridge.

My doctoral dissertation examines contests over the meaning and significance of race among British progressives at the turn of the twentieth century. It focuses on how three thinkers–L. T. Hobhouse, J. A. Hobson, and Graham Wallas—advanced unusual critiques of white racial supremacy, including claims about race as psychological force and corrupting ‘belief’. The dissertation traces how these critiques emerged out of debates over the relationship between white democracy, global empire, and free trade. It argues that these critiques ought to be understood as an attempt to legitimate and consolidate Britain’s imperial democracy, and which represent an overlooked episode in the history of race in modern western thought. This work is supervised by Duncan Bell and funded by the Cambridge Gates Trust. Some related work from this project has been published in Political Theory and the European Journal of Political Theory (see Publications).

At Cambridge, I teach undergraduate papers in political theory, the history of political thought since c. 1890, and methods in history and politics. I have also run undergraduate workshops in study skills for the History Faculty, and am committed to helping students navigate and thrive in their academic studies. I have served as seminar assistant for the seminar in Political Thought and Intellectual History, and currently am the webmaster for the Cambridge Centre for Political Thought.

Prior to the PhD, I completed an MPhil in Political Thought and Intellectual History (with distinction) also at Cambridge and a BA in History and Politics from the University of Oxford (Harris Manchester College).

If you have enquiries or questions, I would be very happy to hear from you via email ! You can also find me on Twitter and on my faculty page.