Christopher S. Parker

Senior Advisor

Christopher S. Parker headshot

Christopher Sebastian Parker (Ph.D., University of Chicago, 2001) serves as a Senior Advisor at GQR, and is the Stuart A. Scheingold Professor of Social Justice and Political Science in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington. His research takes a behavioral approach to race and historical events. His first book, Fighting for Democracy: Black Veterans and the Struggle Against White Supremacy in the Postwar South (Princeton University Press, 2009), winner of the American Political Science Association’s Ralph J. Bunche Award, takes a fresh approach to the civil rights movement by gauging the extent to which black veterans contributed to social change. A second book, Change They Can’t Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America (Princeton University Press, 2013, with Matt Barreto), explores the beliefs, attitudes, and behavior of the Tea Party. This book won the American Political Science Association’s award for the best book in Race, Ethnicity, and Politics. Another book (with Matt Barreto), also in progress, The Great White Hope: Donald Trump, Race, and the Crisis of American Democracy (University of Chicago Press, under contract), examines the causes, and political consequences of Trump’s election.

His scholarly articles have appeared in the Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, Perspectives on Politics, Annual Review of Political Science, Annual Review of Sociology, and the Du Bois Review. Parker’s work has also appeared, or been featured in, the New York Times, 538.com, the Washington Post, CNN.com, the American Prospect, Talking Points Memo, The Brookings Institution, Salon.com, and The Conversation.  He has also appeared on MSNBC and PBS.

Dr. Parker resides in Seattle, WA.