Dr. Michael Ralph

Cameron Schrier Professor and Chair of Afro-American Studies at Howard University, Dr. Ralph also directs the Center for an Equitable Economy and Sustainable Society, teaches at the NYU School of Medicine, and serves as External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He is the author of Forensics of Capital (University of Chicago Press) and the graphic novel Before 13th (HarperCollins), and is currently at work on two additional books centered on slavery, insurance, and incarceration. His research integrates political science, economics, history, and medical anthropology through an explicit focus on algorithms, actuarial science, forensics, debt, slavery, insurance, and incarceration. A former faculty member at NYU, he has held fellowships at Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute and the Charles Warren Center. His widely cited research on the slave insurance market revealed how companies like Aetna, AIG, and New York Life profited from policies on enslaved people — uncovering the financial architecture of American bondage. He is also co-editor of America’s Game(s) (Routledge), a critical anthropology of sport. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in Africana Studies from Morris Brown College.