Center for Racial and Economic Justice
The Center for Racial and Economic Justice (CREJ) works to advance equity and justice through legal education, original research and scholarship, and academic-community partnerships and collaborations. Each year, CREJ convenes and facilitates dialogues with scholars, practitioners, and community leaders through conferences, symposia, and roundtables on contemporary field issues and challenges in racial and economic injustice. To achieve its mission, CREJ actively collaborates with UC Law San Francisco faculty, UC Law San Francisco students, and local and national organizations, as well as other race and law centers across the country.
As a hub for racial and economic justice activities, CREJ enriches the intellectual community at UC Law San Francisco by hosting two academic appointments, the Wiley Manuel Visiting Scholar and Professorship and C. Keith Wingate Visiting Assistant Professorship. The Wiley Manuel Visiting Scholars and Professors are legal scholars whose work has been recognized as seminal the fields of racial and economic justice and include Professor Cheryl Harris (2024 – 2025), Professor Jerry López (2023 – 2024), Professor Scott Cummings (2023 – 2022) and Professor Rusell Robinson (2022 – 2021). In 2025 – 2025, CREJ will welcome Professor Rick Banks as the Wiley Manuel Visiting Scholar and Professor. The two-year C. Keith Wingate Visiting Assistant Professorship supports junior scholars committed to equity and justice, in developing their research and teaching portfolios before entering legal academia. The 2024-2026 C. Keith Wingate Visiting Assistant Professor of Law is Natalia Ramírez Lee. Prior C. Keith Wingate Visiting Assistant Professor of Law are Professor Prithika Balakrishnan (UC Law San Francisco) and Professor Evelyn Marcelina Rangel-Medina (Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law).
CREJ Annual Report 2024-2025
Last Year’s CREJ Annual Report 2023-2024
Faculty Co-Directors
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Thalia GonzálezProfessor of Law & James Edgar Hervey ’50 Chair of Litigation, Co-Director of the Center for Racial and Economic Justice View Thalia González’sProfile |
Shauna MarshallThe Honorable Raymond L. Sullivan Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Center on Racial and Economic Justice View Shauna Marshall’sProfile |
Research
- FAQ: Educational Fines and Fines in K – 12 Public Schools (Center for Racial and Economic Justice, 2025)
- State Restorative Justice Legislation 2020 – 2025: Confidentiality, Admissibility & Privilege, Center for Racial and Economic Justice, UC Law SF (2025)
- ‘Common Sense Discipline’ is Not Evidence-Based School Discipline: The Misalignment of Executive Order 14280 and Education Research (Center for Racial and Economic Justice, 2025).
- FAQ: Remote Work Racial Discrimination (Center for Racial and Economic Justice, 2025).
- Flexible Work, Rigid Discrimination (Natalia Ramírez Lee, 2025)
- With Fear, Favor, and Flawed Analysis: Decision-Making in U.S. Immigration Courts (Karen Musalo, et al., 2024)
- Aligning United States Law with International Norms Would Remove Major Barriers to Protection in Gender Claims (Karen Musalo, 2024)
- Racial Reckoning and the Police-Free Schools Movement (Thalia González & Rebecca Epstein, 2024)
- Reproducing Inequality: Racial Capitalism and the Cost of Public Education (Thalia González & Paige Joki, 2024)
- The Uncertain Future of Restorative Justice: ‘Anti-Woke’ Legislation, Retrenchment & Politics of Parental Rights (Thalia González & Mara Schiff, 2024)
- Taking the Name Brown in Vain: Separate but Equal, Brown and the Harvard Case (Matt Coles, 2024)
Meet the CREJ Faculty Affiliates
Ralph Richard Banks
Center for Racial and Economic Justice Wiley Manuel Visiting Professor
View Ralph Richard Banks’s Profile
Ming H. Chen
Professor and Harry & Lillian Hastings Research Chair, Director of the Center on Race, Immigration, Citizenship and Equality
View Ming H. Chen’s Profile
Karen Musalo
Professor and Chair in International Law, Director of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies
View Karen Musalo’s Profile
Christine Natoli
Kazan McClain Partners’ Foundation Professor of Practice
View Christine Natoli’s Profile
Natalia Ramírez Lee
C. Keith Wingate Visiting Assistant Professor at the Center for Racial and Economic Justice (CREJ)
View Natalia Ramírez Lee’s Profile
Reuel Schiller
The Honorable Roger J. Traynor Chair and Professor of Law
View Reuel Schiller’s Profile
Current Student Researchers
Program Information
The following are UC Law SF courses that explicitly center issues of race and subordination in their examination of the law and legal systems. This list is not exhaustive. We encourage current students to consult the Course Catalog for additional offerings related to issues of racial and economic justice.
- American Indian Law
- American Legal Education: A Critical Examination
- Asian Pacific Americans and the Law
- Citizenism: Race and Immigration
- Citizenship and Equality: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
- Civil Rights Theory and Practicum
- Community Economic Development Seminar
- Community Group Advocacy & Social Change Lawyering Clinic
- Constitutional History: Race and Civil Rights
- Critical Race Theory
- Education Law and Policy
- Restorative Justice
- Employment Discrimination
- Federal Indian Law
- Individual Representation Clinic
- Immigrants’ Rights Clinic
- Immigration Law
- Latinx and the Law
- Movement Lawyering
- Race, Racism, and American Law
- Race, Sexuality, and the Law
- Refugee and Human Rights Clinic
- Refugee Law & Policy
- Reproductive Justice
- Social Enterprise & Economic Empowerment Clinic
- Tribal Law
Upcoming Events
Past Events
Wiley Manuel Lecture featuring Professor Scott Cummings
Join us for a conversation with Professor Scott Cummings exploring the role of law in reimagining what economic justice should look like in American cities profoundly divided by race and class. Our understanding of how law has shaped structural economic and racial inequality at the local level—and how city residents mobilize law as a tool to challenge this inequality—informs our ability to redesign law to address fundamental problems of housing insecurity and labor precarity, while ensuring the sustained and meaningful participation of communities in development and planning decisions that fundamentally affect their lives. This inquiry requires us to also deepen our substantive and practical understanding of the role of movement lawyers in economic and racial justice efforts.
Logged In, Left Out: Racial Inequality in Remote Work
Professor Natalia Ramírez Lee from UC Law SF’s Center for Racial and Economic Justice, Stanford Economics Professor Nick Bloom and Ariane Hegewisch and Binderiya Byambasuren from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research participated in an engaging panel on racial inequality in remote work. Moderated by Professor Seema Patel, the panelists discussed changing remote work norms, examined racial disparities in remote work access, and provided insight into courts’ views on remote work discrimination.
Fine-Free Justice: Lessons From Across the Movements and Advancing Change Now
The Center for Racial and Economic Justice welcomed scholars, civil rights and education attorneys, policy advocates, community based organizations, and youth leaders from across the country to discuss legal and policy advocacy to reduce and restrict educational fines and fees, including civil and criminal fines and penalties specific to school attendance, truancy, and conduct. The event features two engaging panels and a roundtable working session in which panelists and attendees explored synergies between advocacy between systems, examined emerging local and state-level interventions, and strategized for collective action at local and national levels.
From Prop 209 to Prop 16: Historical, Legal and Activist Perspectives on Affirmative Action
Californians have endured a statewide ban on race- and gender-based affirmative action policies since the passage of Proposition 209, which is widely recognized for its devastating impact on advancing racial justice in labor and education. In November 2020, Proposition 16 would have restored affirmative action in CA. This panel discusses the legacies of Proposition 209 and the promise Proposition 16 provided.
Racial Health Disparities: Economic Injustice as an Underlying Condition of Covid
COVID-19 has deeply affected communities of color, who are disproportionately essential workers and whose labor conditions and economic status constrain their ability to protect themselves and their families during the pandemic. Compounding these acute challenges are disproportionate rates of underlying health conditions which are connected to unequal social conditions over the lifespan, including poverty and racism. Panelists describe the evidence base linking economic and racial inequality to health inequity, the ways in which COVID compounds those longstanding inequities, and the role of law as both a positive and negative force in addressing them.
Racial Health Disparities: Police Violence as an Underlying Health Condition
The UCSF/UC Law SF Consortium along with the UC Law SF Center for Racial and Economic Justice are pleased to announce that part two of our Health Equity Webinar Series is now available as a recording. The event, “Racial Health Disparities: Police Violence as an Underlying Health Condition,” took place on Wednesday, January 13th via zoom, as a moderated panel discussion. Attendee questions are integrated into the discussion.
Black UC Law SF (Hastings) Speaks
Black UC Law SF (Hastings) Speaks is a project of the UC Law SF Center for Racial and Economic Justice (CREJ). The series is modeled after the StoryCorps podcasts and aims to preserve and present, with dignity, authentic stories of Black experiences within the UC Law SF community.
CREJ Related News and Updates
Stay in Touch – CREJ
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