Bio


Kristin McFadden is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology at Stanford and a JD Candidate at the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law. Her research broadly focuses on the socio-legal mechanisms of dispossession and disenfranchisement in the American South. Her dissertation investigates the risk of Black land dispossession in the South Carolina Low Country with particular attention to heirs property as a multifaceted legal and political category. Kristin received her B.A. in Anthropology and African American Studies from Emory University, where she was a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, and received her M.A. in Anthropology from Stanford. Kristin has previously worked as a political organizer in rural regions of South Carolina and research analyst with the South Carolina Commission for Minority Affairs.

Honors & Awards


  • Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, National Science Foundation (2024)
  • NEH Summer Institute, Visual Culture of the Civil War and its Aftermath, National Endowment for the Humanities (2023)
  • Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, Wenner-Gren Foundation (2023)
  • The Honorable Matthew J. Perry Scholarship, University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law (2022-present)
  • Graduate Public Service Fellow, Haas Center for Public Service, Stanford University (2020-2021)
  • Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education, Stanford Vice Provost of Graduate Education (VPGE) (2019)
  • Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, Emory University (2016-2018)

Education & Certifications


  • Ph.D., Candidate (ABD), Stanford University, Anthropology
  • J.D. Candidate, University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law
  • MA, Stanford University, Anthropology (2022)
  • BA, Emory University, Anthropology and African American Studies (2018)