DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Interests

Research Interest(s): As a public policy scholar and a political scientist, I examine the politics of global health and the ways in which policies, interventions, and conflict impact women’s sexual and reproductive health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. Through both quantitative work, including large-N studies, machine learning methods with big data, and survey research in rural Western Kenya, to qualitative work such as focus groups in multiple target languages and key informant interviews both in person and via zoom, my research highlights the interconnectedness of gender, health, and international politics and shows that changes to healthcare access produce life-altering results.

Program Area(s): International Relations; Comparative Politics

Regional Specialization(s): Africa

Subfield Specialties: Conflict Studies; Experimental Methods; Feminist and Gender Studies; International Organizations and International Law

Biography

Kelly Hunter is currently a postdoctoral scholar in political science and global health studies and a participant in the Global Poverty Research Lab. Prior to joining Northwestern's political science department, Dr. Hunter was a Junior Visiting Scholar at Nuffield College at the University of Oxford (2022-2023) and Global Health Institute Doctoral Scholar (2019-2021) and Kenan Institute for Ethics Graduate Fellow (2018-2019) at Duke University where she obtained a joint PhD in political science and public policy studies. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships such as the James B. Duke Fellowship, Joel L. Fleishman Civil Society Fellowship, Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Voluntarism Fellowship, Aleane Webb Dissertation Research Fellowship, two Duke Bass Connections Student Research Awards, Duke Graduate School Dissertation Research Travel Award, Duke Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies Travel Award, multiple departmental research and travel grants, the Graduate Research Award and the Graduate Travel Award from Duke Center for International and Global Studies, and five Summer Research Fellowships from the Graduate School. Kelly holds two prior degrees in political science: a BA from BYU and a MA from the University of Utah and she has co-authored published articles on health, politics and policy.

Publications

• Finnegan, Amy, Saisahana Subburaj, Kelly Hunter, Priya Parkash, Elizabeth Shulman, Janel Ramkalawan, and Megan J. Huchko. "Big Data, Machine Learning and Contraceptive Use: A Scoping Review." Oxford Open Digital Health 1 (2023): oqad002.
• Mitchell, Lauren, Bhamini Vellanki, Linda Tang, Kelly Hunter, Amy Finnegan, Jonas J. Swartz, and Megan Huchko. "Contraceptive Provision to Women With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Enrolled in Medicaid." Obstetrics & Gynecology (2022): 10-1097.
• Hunter, Kelly, Sarah Hubner, and Ema Kuczura. “If you don’t help me, I’m going to take my life”: the devastating impact of the US’s global gag rule and the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s sexual and reproductive health in Kenya." International Feminist Journal of Politics 23, no. 2 (2021): 350-357.
• Hunter, Kelly, Brandon Knettel, Deborah Reisinger, Pranav Ganapathy, Tyler Lian, Jake Wong, Danielle Mayorga-Young et al. "Examining health care access for refugee children and families in the North Carolina triangle area." North Carolina Medical Journal 81, no. 6 (2020): 348-354.
  

Awards

• Fleishman Civil Society Fellowship, 2022
• Aleane Webb Dissertation Research Fellowship, 2021
• Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Voluntarism Fellowship, 2021
• Bradley Fellowship, 2022, 2020
• Duke Global Health Institute Doctoral Scholar, 2019
• Kenan Institute for Ethics Graduate Fellow, 2018
• Peace Research Institute Oslo: Gender, Peace, and Conflict Course, 2019
• Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models Summer Institute, 2018
• Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models Certification Scholarship, 2017
• Graduate School Summer Research Fellowship, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017
• Bass Connections, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017
• James B. Duke Fellowship, 2016