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Lawrence Hamilton

SARChI/Newton Research Professor in Political Theory, Wits and Cambridge, University of the Witwatersrand

Lawrence Hamilton, (MA, MPhil, PhD Cantab MASSAf), is the SARChI/Newton Research Professor in Political Theory at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) and University of Cambridge. He is also a Life Member and Associate of Clare Hall, Cambridge, where he has been a Mellon Research Fellow and Visiting Fellow. He is Editor-in-Chief of Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory. His research interests include rethinking various topics in contemporary political theory from and for the global south, as informed by real world politics and the history of political thought. He is the author or editor of five books, including The Political Philosophy of Needs (Cambridge University Press 2003), Freedom is Power: Liberty Through Political Representation (Cambridge University Press 2014) and Are South Africans Free? (Bloomsbury 2014). He is working on a commissioned book, Amartya Sen (Polity 2019) and will soon revert to working on another book, Human Needs, Human Rights and Political Judgement. He is the recipient of a number of awards for research excellence including the Cambridge Gladstone Memorial Prize, the South African National Research Foundation's (NRF) Presidents Award and an NRF Blue Skies Award. He is now rated A2 by the NRF (the only political scientist to receive an A-rating in the history of the rating process).

Experience

  • 2014–present
    Chair professor, University of the Witwatersrand and University of Cambridge

Grants and Contracts

  • 2018
    Role:
    SARChI/Newton Research Professor in Political Theory, Wits and Cambridge
    Funding Source:
    National Research Foundation

Honours

NRF A-rating