I'm a Postdoctoral Fellow in the University of British Columbia's Political Science department. My research is about slavery, racism and colonialism. I completed my PhD in August 2025 at Princeton University.
I'm a Postdoctoral Fellow in the University of British Columbia's Political Science department. My research is about slavery, racism and colonialism. I completed my PhD in August 2025 at Princeton University.
My book project The Science of Slavery: Proslavery Technocracy, 1826-1868 revisits the intellectual history of Antebellum slavery after recent debates about slavery and capitalism. The book looks at how a faction of white Southerners––a group whom I call the proslavery technocrats––appealed to the fledgling social sciences to defend slavery, and tried to develop more impersonal, state-backed, and scientific modes of power.
My book project The Science of Slavery: Proslavery Technocracy, 1826-1868 revisits the intellectual history of Antebellum slavery after recent debates about slavery and capitalism. The book looks at how a faction of white Southerners––a group whom I call the proslavery technocrats––appealed to the fledgling social sciences to defend slavery, and tried to develop more impersonal, state-backed, and scientific modes of power.
I have published in Studies for American Political Development, The European Journal of Political Theory and The Journal of Political Ideologies, as well as popular outlets such as Jacobin.
I have published in Studies for American Political Development, The European Journal of Political Theory and The Journal of Political Ideologies, as well as popular outlets such as Jacobin.
At Princeton, I was a Social Sciences Prize Fellow (2024-5), and also organized the Racial Capitalism and Conservative Critiques of Capitalism Conferences. Before Princeton, I studied at the University of Toronto and McGill.
My email is tristan.hughes@ubc.ca, and here is my Google Scholar page.