Fellowship / Fellows

Khalil Gibran Muhammad

  • 2016–2017
  • History
  • Suzanne Young Murray Professor
  • Harvard Kennedy School
Headshot of Khalil Gibran Muhammad
Photo by Tony Rinaldo
Related

This information is accurate as of the fellowship year indicated for each fellow.

Khalil Gibran Muhammad is a professor of history, race, and public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. His academic work focuses on racial criminalization and the origins of the carceral state. He is the author of The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America (Harvard University Press, 2010), which won the 2011 John Hope Franklin Publication Prize for the best book in American studies.

During his fellowship years at the Radcliffe Institute, Muhammad hopes to extend the work he began with The Condemnation of Blackness from the late 19th century well into the 20th century, asking along the way why white crime is never quantified.

Muhammad is a native of the South Side of Chicago. He graduated with a BA in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and received his PhD in American history from Rutgers University, specializing in 20th-century United States and African American history. He also holds honorary doctorates from the New School (2013) and Bloomfield College (2014). His articles and scholarship have appeared in many publications, including the New York Times, the New Yorker, and the Washington Post.

Racial Wealth Gap May Be a Key to Other Inequities (Harvard Gazette, 6/3/21)

In The Wake Of Chauvin's Conviction, A Look Back At The Origins Of American Policing (NPR, 4/22/21)

In Nubian Square, Black Bostonians Exhale after Chauvin Verdict, But Fear Unjust Police Killings Will Happen Again (GBH News, 4/21/21)

Solving Racial Disparities in Policing (Harvard Gazette, 2/23/21)

Record Turnout of Black Voters Comes after Decades of Activism (Harvard Gazette, 2/17/21)

Khalil Gibran Muhammad on Why Diversity and Inclusion Efforts Fail (Harvard Gazette, 10/1/20)

It Really Is Different This Time (Politico, 6/4/20)

American Police (NPR, 6/3/20)

Our 2023–2024 Fellows

01 / 09

News & Ideas