Exeter College alumna appointed inaugural Churchill Associate Professor in US Politics

Exeter College alumna Dr Ursula Hackett (2006, PPE; 2009 MPhil Politics) has been appointed as the inaugural Churchill Associate Professor in US Politics at the University of Oxford’s Rothermere American Institute (RAI), in association with The Queen’s College. She will take up the position on 1 September. 

The newly endowed post has been established through the generosity of an anonymous donor and will support the launch of the University’s first specialist MSc in American Politics. The appointment marks a return to Oxford for Dr Hackett, who began her academic career as a Junior Research Fellow at the RAI and most recently served as Reader in Politics at Royal Holloway, University of London. 

Dr Hackett’s research explores how law, political institutions and public policy shape representation and political inequality in the United States. She is the author of America’s Voucher Politics: How Elites Learned to Hide the State (Cambridge University Press, 2020), which received the American Political Science Association’s Education Politics Best Book Award, as well as several other major honours. She has also written Brilliant Essays, a widely used guide to academic writing for students. 

Speaking about her appointment, Dr Hackett said: “I am delighted and honoured to be joining the Rothermere American Institute to take up the Churchill Chair. As a former RAI Junior Research Fellow, I have long valued its distinctive intellectual community and its commitment to rigorous, world-leading research on American politics.” 

Professor Adam Smith, Director of the RAI, described Dr Hackett as “the best possible person for this exciting new role”, praising her combination of “remarkable intellectual power with infectious enthusiasm and enormous energy.” 

Exeter College warmly congratulates Dr Hackett on her achievement.