Dr. Imani Strong

Biography

Imani Strong completed her PhD at the London School of Economics in 2021 with a thesis entitled 'Contracting Change: An Ethnographic Study of Affirmative Action, Entrepreneurship, and Bureaucracy in Atlanta, Georgia,' which is the basis for her current book project. Grounded in a year of fieldwork in Atlanta, including time embedded in Atlanta City Hall, her research contributes to the growing body of ethnographic research on affirmative action internationally, focusing on racial identities and the theoretical perspectives of bureaucracy, audit, and capitalism. Her work primarily explores the self-fashioning of African American entrepreneurs as ethical capitalist racial actors and the forms of emotional and ethical labors undertaken by bureaucrats tasked with administering legally constrained programs. Strong is currently the Chief Operating Officer at Griffin & Strong, PC, a public policy consulting research firm based in Atlanta, Georgia, specializing in economic disparity research studies and diversity consulting for governmental entities. Her doctoral research examines the legal underpinnings of studies and the practical impact of the landscape of restitutive bureaucracy in the United States. She holds an MSc in Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford and a BA in Anthropology from Mount Holyoke College. Her doctoral research was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and LSE’s International Inequalities Institute.

Research Interests

Experience