Clayton Covington

PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, Harvard University.
Visiting Student, University of Toronto.
Affiliate, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion (2025-2027).
Headshot of Clayton Covington in front of a grey background

Research interests: Gender & Sexuality, International Development, Organizations and Mobilization, Culture, Politics, Mixed-methods, North America and the Caribbean.

Bio: Clayton Covington is a PhD Candidate in Sociology with a research focus on the political economy of humanitarian intervention and cultural processes of social change in the Caribbean. Drawing on mixed-methods, his work combines historical and contemporary cases to examine the evolving status of citizenship. Clayton earned his BA in International and Area Studies and minor in Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, where he was also a Mellon Mays Fellow. As a fellow, Clayton conducted archival research in Jamaica, where he documented the evolution of the country’s anti-sodomy laws and related punishment. His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Prior to starting at Harvard, Clayton worked as a Research Associate in the Department of Sociology at Duke University and as a Research Aide to the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect at Cornell University. 

Research summary: My research focuses on the political economy of humanitarian intervention and cultural processes of social change in and between North America and the Caribbean. Drawing on mixed-methods, my work combines historical and contemporary cases to examine the evolving status of citizenship. In my dissertation, I examine the sudden closure of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2025 and its far-reaching consequences on the development sector, including for other donor and recipient countries. In a second line of research, I examine how LGBTQ advocates in Jamaica navigate the competing demands of international donors and their own local expertise, highlighting how such discrepancies can simultaneously enrich and hamstring these collaborations. My work has been recognized and supported by several organizations, including the National Science Foundation, American Council for Learned Societies, Social Science Research Council, and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. 

This information is accurate as of the affiliate year indicated. (last updated 08.31.2026)