A highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, and legal scholar, Alexander currently holds a joint appointment at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University. Previously, she served as an associate professor of law at Stanford Law School, where she directed the Civil Rights Clinics. A graduate of Stanford Law School and Vanderbilt University, Alexander clerked for Justice Harry A. Blackmun on the United States Supreme Court and for Chief Judge Abner Mikva on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In 2005, she won a Soros Justice Fellowship, which supported the writing of the book. Considered one of the top African-American books of 2010, it won the NAACP Image Award for "outstanding literary work of non-fiction." The book has been featured on national radio and television, including NPR, "Bill Moyers Journal," "Tavis Smiley Show" and the "Washington Journal" on C-Span, among others.
Dr. Alexander is as passionate about her work as she is brilliant, informed and articulate. She makes a compelling case for rethinking our approach to incarceration and the 'war on drugs' in The New Jim Crow - a perspective that is sure to prompt productive dialogue, particularly during Black History Month.
The 2012--13 University of Dayton Speaker Series brings us a diverse group of distinguished scholars, activists and artists dedicated to a common theme: "Education for Transformation."