Khiara M. Bridges
Professor of Law
Khiara M. Bridges is a Professor of Law at UC Berkeley School of Law, where she teaches criminal law, family law, reproductive rights, and critical race theory. She holds both a J.D. from Columbia Law School and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University, and graduated as valedictorian of Spelman College in three years. She is the author of three acclaimed books including Critical Race Theory: A Primer and Reproducing Race, and her scholarship has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review, and Columbia Law Review. Her interdisciplinary work examines how race and class shape experiences with legal and medical institutions.
Teaching Style
Professor Bridges combines rigorous doctrinal teaching with a deep commitment to examining how law intersects with race, class, and gender. She uses the Socratic method actively, cold-calling students to analyze cases while also considering how legal doctrines affect marginalized communities differently. Her ethnographic training brings a unique empirical dimension to classroom discussions, as she pushes students to think about how law operates not just in appellate opinions but in lived experiences.
Cold Call Tips
- 1Be prepared to analyze criminal law and family law doctrines through the lens of race and class
- 2Read her books, especially Critical Race Theory: A Primer, for background on the theoretical frameworks she uses
- 3Think critically about how seemingly neutral legal rules can produce disparate impacts across communities
- 4Come prepared to discuss the factual context and social implications of cases, not just the doctrinal rules
Areas of Expertise
Education
- J.D., Columbia Law School
- Ph.D., Columbia University (Anthropology, with distinction)
- B.A., Spelman College (Valedictorian)
Notable Publications
- Critical Race Theory: A Primer
- The Poverty of Privacy Rights
- Reproducing Race: An Ethnography of Pregnancy as a Site of Racialization
Research Interests
More Professors at UC Berkeley School of Law
Constitutional Law, Federal Courts, Civil Rights, First Amendment
Environmental Law, Constitutional Law, Legislation and Regulation, Climate Change Law
International Law, Criminal Law, Human Rights, International Criminal Law
Constitutional Law, Feminist Legal Theory, Law and Social Movements, Immigration Law