On July 1, 2016, Risa Goluboff became the twelfth Dean, and first woman Dean, of the University of Virginia School of Law. A mere listing of achievements, awards and honors would be impressive: A.B. from Harvard, M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton, J.D. from Yale Law School, clerkships with Judge Guido Calabrese (Second Circuit) and Justice Stephen Breyer (Supreme Court), University of Virginia’s All-University Teaching Award (2011), Guggenheim fellowship, fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, the list could run off the page. Of much greater value, though, is the example Risa offers of the contribution that law can make, when joined skillfully and honestly with other disciplines, in helping society hold a mirror up to itself. This she did preeminently with her 2007 book The Lost Promise of Civil Rights. This book, which was awarded the Order of the Coif Biennial Book Award and the Hurst Prize, offers a story of the urgency of economic as well as legal justice for African Americans. Her latest scholarly contribution is her 2016 book Vagrant Nation: Police Power, Constitutional Change, and the Making of the 1960s.
