Professor of Political Studies, University of Witwatersrand

Professor Lawrence Hamilton (BA(MA), MPhil, PhD Cantab, MASSAf) is Professor of Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). He holds the SA-UK Bilateral Research Chair in Political Theory, Wits and Cambridge, where he teaches and researches in political theory, the history of political and economic thought and South African politics and intellectual history. He has held visiting positions in Salvador, Caracas, Cape Town and Cambridge, is an elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and is the only political scientist ever to receive an A-rating from the South African National Research Foundation (NRF). He is an editor of Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory. His many articles and books include How To Read Amartya Sen (Penguin 2020), Amartya Sen (Polity 2019), Freedom is Power: Liberty Through Political Representation (Cambridge University Press 2014), Are South Africans Free? (Bloomsbury 2014) and The Political Philosophy of Needs (Cambridge University Press 2003). He is currently working on a book on the future of democracy. He co-founded and co-directs the Association of Political Theory in Africa (APTA) and founded and directs the Witwatersrand-Cambridge Exchange Programme and Critical South, a blog and podcast. He is the recipient of over fifteen awards for research excellence.