Professor Christopher Carter Named Dean's Research Fellow

Professor Chris Carter awarded two-year research fellowship at UVA

Professor Christopher Carter has been named a Dean’s Research Fellow within the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, a distinction that provides two years of dedicated research funding. According to a report from politics.virginia.edu, the appointment covers the 2026–2027 and 2027–2028 academic years, recognizing a select group of scholars whose work has fundamentally impacted their respective fields.

Dean Christa Acampora highlighted Carter’s “innovative and field-transforming research” when announcing the recipient. As the John L. Nau III Associate Professor of the History and Principles of Democracy, Carter’s work moves beyond theoretical political science into the granular, often volatile realities of how communities assert their rights against state power.

The fellowship program is specifically designed to recognize exceptional faculty within Arts & Sciences, focusing on tenured and tenure-track professors who have been promoted within the previous three years. For Carter, this funding supports the continued investigation of a central tension in Latin American politics: why different Indigenous communities pursue such vastly different paths when facing state pressure.

The mechanics of resistance and extraction

Carter’s recent scholarship focuses on the historical roots of modern political movements. In his 2025 book, The Long Shadow of Extraction: The Origins of Indigenous Autonomy Demands, published by Princeton University Press, he examines the systemic seizure of Indigenous land, labor, and resources—a process he defines as “extraction.”

His research suggests that the way a community fights back is not random, but is instead dictated by the organizational structures that rise to meet the challenge. By analyzing archival evidence and conducting fieldwork in Peru and Bolivia, Carter identifies a critical fork in the road for political mobilization:

Ethnic-based mobilization: When traditional Indigenous authorities lead the resistance, the movement tends to take an ethnic form, resulting in enduring demands for autonomy.
Class-based mobilization: When unions or leftist political parties take the lead, the movement often adopts a class-based framework, leading communities toward integration with the state rather than independence.

This distinction explains why patterns established during the colonial and early republican eras continue to dictate the shape of Indigenous politics in the present day. It suggests that the “shadow” of past extraction is not just a memory, but a blueprint for current political agency.

A career built on fieldwork and academic rigor

Before joining the faculty at UVA, Carter served as an Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies after moving from Harvard University.

His academic foundation includes a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, where he maintains a role as a research associate at the Center on the Politics of Development. His international training is further marked by a master’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of Cambridge, where he studied as a Gates Cambridge Scholar, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The impact of his research has been validated by the highest levels of his discipline. His previous accolades include:

Award	Granting Body	Year
Best Fieldwork Award	American Political Science Association (APSA)	2020
Juan Linz Prize (Best Dissertation in Comparative Study of Democracy)	N/A	2021
Best Paper Awards (Multiple Sections)	American Political Science Association (APSA)	Various

As Carter enters this new two-year fellowship period, his work continues to bridge the gap between historical archival study and the contemporary struggle for sovereignty in the Americas.