Ph.D. Candidate: Political Science

Hometown: Washington DC/Hyattsville, MD

Kory Gaines is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. His dissertation examines Chicago blues and local politics in the city between 1915 and 1957.

Drawing on historical and archival methods, his research bridges the Political Theory and American Politics subfields. The project focuses on the leisure-based labor economy, vice, local machine politics, and blues nightlife institutions.

Kory is an active part of the CAS community, consistently supportive and engaged in CAS initiatives.

I like CAS firstly because it is our institutional home of Black Studies. The CAS staff and faculty have been nothing but kind and supportive to me as graduate student. Earlier on, CAS gatherings helped me connect with other like-minded grads that I did not know at the time. CAS has given me opportunities to meet with really inspiring visiting senior faculty in Black Studies from the Franklin Knight lectures and other programs as well. Although I am not in the CAS Office itself very often, it is always a comforting space to me where I have fond memories having met and sat with grads, postdocs, faculty, and staff alike who have a commitment to supporting Black Study at Hopkins.