Michael Fortner

 

Michael Fortner

Graduate Student
 
E-mail:
Year:
fortner@fas.harvard.edu
G5
Thesis Title: Must Difference Divide: The Institutional Roots of Racial Politics in London and New York
Major Field: Government and Social Policy
Advisors: Jennifer Hochschild, Theda Skocpol, Nancy Rosenblum, Peter Hall

Biographical Note:

Michael Javen Fortner received his BA in Political Science and African-American studies from Emory University in 2001. Currently, Michael is a PhD Student in the Government Department at Harvard University and a doctoral fellow in the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy. His work studies the intersection of American political development and political philosophy -- particularly in the areas of race, ethnicity, and class. His dissertation, “Must Difference Divide?: The Institutional Roots of Racial Politics,” compares the development of racial politics in London and New York. Marshalling historical evidence and over-time data on non-white associations, his project examines the relationship between state structures and patterns of non-white political activism. In fall 2005, Michael was a visiting fellow at the Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics. He has been awarded fellowships or grants from the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Aspen Institute, the Center for American Political Studies, the American Political Science Association, and the Mortar Board Honor Society. He has also received a Certificate of Distinction for Excellence in Teaching and has been a nominee for the Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize.