Megan Ming Francis

Megan Ming Francis is the G. Alan and Barbara Delsman Associate Professor of Political Science and an Associate Professor of Law, Societies, and Justice at the University of Washington. During the 2021-22 academic year, she is also a Senior Democracy Fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and a Racial Justice Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School. Francis specializes in the study of American politics, with broad interests in criminal punishment, Black political activism, philanthropy, and the post-civil war South. She is the author of the award winning book, Civil Rights and the Making of the Modern American State. She is currently working on two book projects: (1) ‘The Crimes of Capitalism’ examines the role of the criminal punishment system in the rebuilding of southern political and economic power after the Civil War and (2) ‘How to Fund a Movement’ examines the history and future of philanthropy’s complicated relationship with social movements. In addition, her research and commentary have been featured in numerous academic and public outlets, including a popular TED talk.
 
Francis is a proud alumnus of Seattle Public Schools, Rice University in Houston, and Princeton University where she received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Politics.