Hakeem Jefferson

Hakeem Jefferson

Hakeem Jefferson

  • Assistant Professor, Political Science
  • CDDRL Affiliated Faculty

Biography

Hakeem Jefferson is an assistant professor of political science at Stanford University where he is also a faculty affiliate with the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and the Stanford Center for American Democracy. During the 2021-22 academic year he was also the SAGE Sara Miller McCune Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.

Hakeem’s work focuses primarily on the role identity plays in structuring political attitudes and behaviors in the U.S. His in-progress book project builds on his award-winning dissertation to consider how Black Americans come to support punitive social policies that target members of their racial group.

In other projects, Hakeem examines the causes of the racial divide in Americans’ reactions to officer-involved shootings; works to evaluate the meaningfulness of key political concepts, like ideological identification among Black Americans; and considers how white Americans navigate an identity that many within the group perceive as increasingly stigmatized. In these and other projects, Hakeem sets out to showcase and clarify the important and complex ways that identity matters across all domains of American life.

A public-facing, justice-oriented scholar, Hakeem is an academic contributor at FiveThirtyEight and his writings and commentary have been featured in places like the New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and other major outlets. He is also active on Twitter, and you can follow him @hakeemjefferson.

publications

Journal Articles
October 2023

The Politics of Respectability and Black Americans’ Punitive Attitudes

Author(s)
cover link The Politics of Respectability and Black Americans’ Punitive Attitudes
Conference Memos
January 2023

Democracy’s Racism Problem

Author(s)
cover link Democracy’s Racism Problem

In The News

White House with overlayed American flag
Commentary

Stanford Scholars Discuss What’s at Stake in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election

In a panel moderated by Didi Kuo, Bruce Cain, Hakeem Jefferson, and Brandice Canes-Wrone discussed the structural features of American democracy and addressed the issues, strategies, and stakes central to November’s race.
cover link Stanford Scholars Discuss What’s at Stake in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election
Hakeem Jefferson (L) and Jake Grumbach (R) moderate a panel with authors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt.
News

Program on Identity, Democracy, and Justice (IDJ) Engages Campus on Multiracial Democracy

The launch events hosted by CDDRL's new research initiative invited undergraduates, graduate associates, and members of the public to discuss the future of multiracial democracy.
cover link Program on Identity, Democracy, and Justice (IDJ) Engages Campus on Multiracial Democracy
View of the huge crowd from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument, during the March on Washington
News

New Research Program Explores Intersection of Identity, Democracy, and Justice

Led by Professor Hakeem Jefferson, the program housed at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law will advance innovative research on the multifaceted dimensions of identity and their role in democratic development, struggles for recognition, social justice, and inclusion.
cover link New Research Program Explores Intersection of Identity, Democracy, and Justice