Advocacy for those in need of justice marks political science professor’s 40 years at USC

Professor Emerita of Political Science Nora Hamilton died on Jan. 19. She was 88.

Hamilton served as professor of political science at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences from 2001 until 2007, although her time as a teacher at the university spanned four decades, from 1977 to 2017.

Her teaching, research and activism efforts focused on Latin America, immigration and Latin American communities in the United States, with her best-known scholarship focusing on the post-revolutionary Mexican state.

Expanding her horizons

The oldest of three children, Hamilton was born to Nora (née McIntyre) and Frederick McGuire Hamilton on Sept. 27, 1935, in Washington, D.C. The family relocated to Alabama while she was still a toddler. After the birth of her brother, Frank, and the death of their father when Hamilton was 3, her mother married Eugene Munger Jr. and had another child, Eugenia.

Eugenia recalls that while growing up in Montgomery, her sister displayed an interest in writing from an early age, a trait she carried into later life, as her authorship of several books attests.

Her intellectual curiosity was also on full display from a young age, Eugenia adds. “When she was a teenager, she wanted us to take turns and have an interesting topic that we would discuss each night at the dinner table,” Eugenia says. “She was like a sponge as far as learning, and if you taught her something, even something you would not think anybody would be the slightest bit interested in, she’d say, ‘Well, I learned something.’”

Longing for more than Alabama could give her, Hamilton soon embarked on the first of a series of journeys that took her all over the world. She stopped first in White Plains, N.Y., just outside of New York City, to attend Manhattanville College, earning her bachelor’s degree in English literature in 1957.

When she started working for the Ford Foundation after college, Hamilton’s interest in political science crystallized, Eugenia says. The foundation sent her to Chile for three years — 1966 to 1969 — to research agrarian reform, student movements and peasant organization in the country. She next went to graduate school, earning first her master’s degree in Latin American studies from New York University and then, in 1978, her doctorate in sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Eugenia recalls that Hamilton spent several years in Mexico conducting research for her thesis before returning to the U.S., where she soon set off for Los Angeles.

Four decades at USC

At USC Dornsife, Hamilton taught courses on immigration, political development and political economy while her research focused on international migration, Central American immigrant communities, and the impact of economic and political developments in Mexico.

Hamilton authored several books on Mexico during her time at USC Dornsife, including The Limits of State Autonomy in Post-Revolutionary Mexico (Princeton University Press, 1982) and Mexico: Political, Social and Economic Transitions(Oxford University Press, 2010). She also co-authored several works on Mexican and Central American immigration to Southern California.

Alison Dundes Renteln ’91, professor of political science, anthropology, public policy and law at USC Dornsife, says Hamilton was “a true Renaissance woman” who drew on many different disciplines but who always put justice at the center of her work.

“She and I clicked over human rights because she was sometimes an expert witness in political asylum cases,” says Renteln, who holds a JD from USC Gould School of Law and studies international law and human rights. “She attracted students who, like her, had seen the big picture, who cared about global justice and who had this kind of humanitarian impulse.”

One such student was Charles Lee, an associate professor of justice and social inquiry at Arizona State University, who earned his doctorate in political theory and cultural studies from USC Dornsife in 2006. Hamilton served on Lee’s dissertation committee and, as the two of them shared a scholarly interest in immigration, Hamilton was a source of knowledge and guidance that was essential during the dissertation process, Lee says.

“She was very kind, patient, unassuming and had a calming presence, and it was always a joy to chat with her about my research on immigrant workers because she had a wealth of knowledge and insights on the subject,” Lee says. “She was someone who was committed to socially meaningful research and always being there for her students, and she influenced me to approach my own scholarly work and my own students in the same way.”

Activism for the underserved

According to her friend and longtime research collaborator Norma Chinchilla, Professor Emerita of Sociology at California State University, Long Beach, Hamilton’s commitment to her research was “inseparable” from her passion for social justice.

Soon after arriving in L.A., Hamilton joined the Los Angeles Group for Latin American Solidarity, and with them began work as an editor with the newly formed independent journal Latin American Perspectives.

Chinchilla notes that in the early 1980s, when many countries in Central America were being run by right-wing dictators supported by the U.S. government, Hamilton co-founded several key organizations in Los Angeles, including the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, the Nicaraguan Task Force and the Central American Refugee Center.

Hamilton and Chinchilla also shared the first annual Adelante! Award from the Salvadoran American Education and Leadership Fund in 2007, and the first annual Immigration Scholar Activist Award from USC in 2014.

USC Dornsife Professor Emerita of Sociology Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo called Hamilton and Chinchilla “key figures” in the sanctuary movement in L.A., which aimed to understand Central American migration in the context of U.S.-sponsored civil wars.

“That work seemed to morph into their collaborative research project on Central American migration and the establishment of Central American communities in Los Angeles. Together they were pioneers and really laid a lot of groundwork for others,” Hondagneu-Sotelo says.

Hondagneu-Sotalo adds that although Hamilton was a great scholar, she was also a kind person who had a positive effect on those around her.

“Nora was an exceptionally gracious person who had a very affirming, gentle presence in any committee or working group. She was a strong scholar and political activist with leftist sensibilities, and yet a very gentle presence in any group,” she says.

Eugenia recalls a childhood episode that illustrates the sense of fairness Hamilton carried through her life as an activist and voice for those facing injustice.

“Nora was 8 years older than I was, and her friends were starting a club, you know like kids do, and one person let her little sister, who was a year younger than I was, join. But then they said no more little kids,” Eugenia recalls. “Nora didn’t say anything to me about it, but Mama later told me Nora had gone and stood up for me, saying they were all being unfair, and she quit because of it. That’s what she was like; she fought for people who weren’t being treated fairly in life.”