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Staff Profile

Dr Skyler Hawkins

Lecturer in Politics of Race & Ethnicity

Background

Using my close and unique access to American elected officials, major parties and community groups, my work centres on the intersection of race, gender and politics. With research on global activism, elections and law-making, and the rise of women, people of colour and other historically-excluded groups in elective office, I explore the people, life and culture in US politics and beyond. I’m also dedicated to the education of new scholars, applying practical and forward-thinking teaching methods inside and outside the classroom.


Qualifications:

  • PhD Social Anthropology with Visual Media, University of Manchester
  • MA Anthropology, Australian National University
  • BA Women's and Gender Studies, Government, Pacific Studies, Georgetown University
Research

As a political and visual ethnographer, I’m really interested in critically exploring political life, identities and culture. Currently, I’m developing a book about this dynamic era, provisionally titled The personal is (still) political: (Re)imagining gender, race and representation in the United States, which explores the multi-faceted ways in which politically-engaged women participate in a full breadth of political practices and processes: protest and activism, the creation and implementation of legislation and executive policies, run campaigns, lead political parties, and grassroots organising and community work. Citing extensive ethnographic research conducted during 2016-early 2017 and 2020 in the US state of North Carolina, the work draws on political, sociological and anthropological theories to examine the legacies of structural sexism and racism in modern electoral and legislative processes.


My research also offers new and exciting contributions on the growing role of social media, video conferencing and other digital platforms in activism and community organising, electoral campaigning and outcomes, and the significant presence of politics in popular culture. I look forward to research-led teaching on current and future modules that explore these topics using political and multi-disciplinary theories on race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and class and inequality.


I am especially keen to supervise students working in these areas:

  • Race and ethnicity in electoral and legislative politics
  • Political representation and policymaking by women, non-binary and gender fluid people
  • Visual and ethnographic research methods
  • Politics in/of pop culture
  • Politics of the American South
Teaching

Postgraduate Research, currently supervising:

  • Maia Almeida-Amir, "The digital politics of BreadTube: Structuring the contemporary left through YouTube, political discourse, and digital community building" for a PhD in Media, Culture and Heritage - co-supervised with Dr Tina Sikka


Postgraduate Teaching:

  • POL 8024: Ethnographic Methods in the Political Field (Module Leader - Autumn 2023)
  • POL 8098 and POL 8099: MA Dissertations (Supervisor - 2022-Present)


Undergraduate Teaching:

  • POL 2017: Becoming a Political Researcher (co-Module Leader - Spring 2024, Seminar Leader - Autumn 2021)
  • POL 2114: Politics of Race (Module Leader - 2022-Present)
  • POL 3046: Final Year Dissertation (Supervisor - 2021-Present)
  • POL 3047 and 3048: Final Year Project (Supervisor - 2021-Present)
Publications