Chinemelu Okafor is a Harvard Ph.D. candidate, Graduate Prize Fellow, Karl Deutsch Fellow, and Weatherhead Center Graduate Student Associate. Her research lies at the intersection of comparative politics, development economics, and economic history. Specifically, she quantitatively explores how the social, cultural, and institutional legacies of pre-colonial (and colonial) events continue to shape contemporary political and economic development outcomes in West Africa.
In 2023 Chinemelu was 1 of 30 recipients of a Forbes 30 under 30 North America award in education for her work as the founder and president of the Research in Color Foundation — a 501c(3) non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the representation and retention of historically excluded scholars in economics through mentorship and financial support. In the past, she has worked with institutions such as the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, and the United Nations, among others. Chinemelu holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and International Studies from the University of Michigan and a Master’s degree in Applied Economics from George Washington University. For the 2023-24 school year, Chinemelu was on leave from her Ph.D. program and working as a Staff Economist with the White House Council of Economics Advisers on topics related to international economics and trade.
Contact
cokafor@g.harvard.edu
1737 Cambridge Street
Subfields
Comparative Politics
Academic Interests
Civil Society and Social Movements | Institutions | Political Economy & Development | Political Psychology | Race & Ethnicity | State-Society Relations | State & Local Politics
Research Methods
Experiments | Historical Methods | Qualitative Methods | Quantitative Methods | Surveys
Geographic Regions of Study
Africa