Jennifer Hamilton

Professor of Legal Studies and Anthropology

Critical Social Inquiry

jahSS@hampshire.edu

Mail Code CSI

Jennifer Hamilton

Franklin Patterson Hall G-6

413.559.5677

Teaching at Amherst College from Fall 2019-Spring 2021.

Jennifer Hamilton, professor of legal studies and anthropology, received her B.A. in anthropology and English literature from McGill University and her Ph.D. in anthropology from Rice University.

Her interests include social studies of law, science, and biomedicine, theories of culture and identity, and critical race and gender studies.

She is the author of Indigeneity in the Courtroom: Law, Culture, and the Production of Difference in North American Courts. Her most recent research examines human genetic variation research and the sociocultural, legal, and ethical formations that emerge around it.

Recent and Upcoming Courses

Indigenous Lands & Sovereignties
This course introduces students to the critical study of settler colonialism in the United States and Canada by focusing on historic and continuing expansion of colonial and federal power into Indigenous territories. We begin in the eighteenth century in the Northeastern part of the continent looking at early treaties in the larger context of Indian-settler relations. We then trace westward expansion in the 19th and early 20th centuries to provide a context for understanding contemporary conflicts over land, resources, and sovereignty and self-determination. This course has no prerequisites but is geared towards students with preparation in Native American Indigenous Studies (NAIS), law and/or legal studies, and/or U.S. empire studies. Topics include law, colonialism, and nation-building; land and memory; law, science, and the emergence of Indigenous legal identities; and environmental justice.