Alex J.
Moffett-Bateau
Ph.D. Political Science, University of Chicago.
M.A. Political Science, University of Chicago.
B.A. Political Science and the Center for Afro-American and African Studies
Dr. Alex J. Moffett-Bateau is an ethnographer, researcher, writer and political science professor at John Jay College - CUNY. They are a political knowledge worker whose focus is on Black feminist, abolitionist, + disability justice political education. Professor Moffett-Bateau holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago and a BA in political science + African American studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Dr. MB is originally from Detroit, Michigan and now makes her home in New York City. You can download a free open-access copy of her book, Redefining the Political, wherever books are sold. Paperback copies are also available for purchase from book retailers.
Political Science. Race and Politics
Political Science, Race and the Law
Political Science, Gender and the Law
Political Science, Introduction to Qualitative Methods
Political Science, Senior Research Course
Graduate-level, Political Science: Ethnographic + Qualitative Methods
American Political Science Association
Midwest Political Science Association
Western Political Science Association
National Conference of Black Political Scientists
Recent Publications
Moffett-Bateau, Alex J. Redefining the Political: Black Women Living Below the Poverty Line in Chicago, Black Feminism, and the Politics of Everyday Life. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. September 6, 2024. (Knowledge Unlatched Open Access Edition.) https://openresearchlibrary.org/content/7a407201-7861-40f1-a909-0afc4ba96667
- Winner of the 2025 Anna Julia Cooper Outstanding Publication award from the Association for the Study of Black Women in Politics.
- Reviewed in Gender & Society, CHOICE, and Ethnic and Racial Studies
- Knowledge Unlatched. KU Select 2025. Open-access funding award from the Knowledge Unlatched Collective www.knowledgeunlatched.org
Moffett-Bateau, Alex J. “Strategies of Resistance in the Everyday: The Political Approaches of Black Women Living in a Public Housing Development in Chicago.” Journal of Women, Politics & Policy. September 11, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1080/1554477X.2023.2248858. [Preprint available at SSRN]: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4464643.
Moffett-Bateau, Alex J. “‘I Can’t Vote if I Don’t Leave My Apartment’: The Problem of Neighborhood Violence and its Impact on the Political Behavior of Black American Women Living Below the Poverty Line.” Urban Affairs Review. March 28, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1177/10780874231162930. [Preprint available at SSRN]: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4461584.
Moffett-Bateau, Alex J., and Jenn M. Jackson. “Moving Beyond Niceness: Reading bell hooks into the Radical Potential for the Discipline.” Journal of Women, Politics & Policy. Vol. 43, Issue 3, May 18, 2022. pp. 409-416. https://doi.org/10.1080/1554477X.2022.2075681. [Preprint available at SSRN]: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4461601.
Moffett-Bateau, Alexandra J. “Feminist Erasure: The Development of a Black Feminist Methodological Theory.” Feminist Erasures: Challenging Backlash Culture. Silva, K. and Mendes, K. (eds.) Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan. 2015. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137454928_4. [Preprint available at SSRN]: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4461603.
Recent Honors and Awards
2024 Book Publication Award. Office of Academic Research, John Jay College of Criminal Justice – CUNY.
2024 Rodney Higgins Best Faculty Paper Award. National Conference of Black Political Scientists.
2023 - BRES Research Faculty Fellowship. BRES Collaboration Hub at The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York. New York.
2024 BRES Research Faculty Fellowship. BRES Collaboration Hub at The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York. New York
2021 Institute for Civically Engaged Research [ICER]. American Political Science Association. Virtual.
2020 Faculty Scholarship Program Award. Office of Academic Research, John Jay College of Criminal Justice – CUNY.
2016 Faculty Fellowship Publication Program. City University of New York. New York, NY.
2015 PSC-CUNY Research Award. City University of New York.
2015 University Advisory Council on Diversity for the Diversity Projects Development Fund Grant. City University of New York.
Dr. Moffett-Bateau's research and writing focus on extra-systemic and subversive politics. Her book Redefining the Political argues, in order to accurately understand the political engagement of Black women living in poverty, a fundamental expansion and redefinition of what is considered, “political” is needed.
Prof MB's research agenda is centrally concerned with the external forces shaping individual political capacity. Specifically, she is invested in thinking about the intersections of race, class, gender, and geography, and the resulting structural vulnerability within Black marginalized communities. Ultimately, structural vulnerability makes Black marginalized communities who also manage identities with high-stigma especially vulnerable to the spaces they live in, their workplace conditions, and government activity within local neighborhoods and cities. The sum total of Alex’s research argues spatial and governmental realities can have a significant impact on the extent an individual can imagine political possibilities for herself or others. Violent, isolated and toxic environments, all function to limit the citizenship development of citizens in a way troubling to the functioning of democracy in the United States.