Dr. Jennifer Pitts

Biography

Jennifer Pitts is the David Mary Winton Green Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago, where she also chairs the Department of Political Science. Her research focuses on international relations and political theory, particularly the British and French thought of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, empire, history of international law, and global justice. She has authored several significant works, including "Boundaries International" (Harvard, 2018), which explores European debates about legal relations with extra-European societies during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Her recent edited volumes include contributions to "Cambridge History Rights" (Cambridge, 2025), and she has co-edited works such as "W.E.B. Du Bois, International Thought" (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Pitts has been involved with various faculty boards, including the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory and the Human Rights Program. Her most recent works have appeared in journals like Political Theory and International Relations, and she has presented her research in various media formats.

Research Interests