Daria Roithmayr
USC Gould School of Law

Daria Roithmayr teaches and writes about persistent structural racism in labor, housing, political participation, wealth and education. Her recent book, Reproducing Racism: How Everyday Choices Lock In White Advantage (NYU 2014), explores the self-reinforcing dynamics of persistent racial inequality. Her work is heavily interdisciplinary, drawing from economics, sociology, political theory, history and complex systems theory. She is currently at work on a new book, Racism Pays, which explores the way that recent innovations in the digital economy have relied on racial exploitation to get off the ground.

Before joining USC Gould, Roithmayr taught for nine years at the University of Illinois College of Law. She has also been a visiting researcher at Harvard University and a visiting law professor at the University of Michigan, Georgetown, and Yale.

Roithmayr received her BS from UCLA, and her JD, magna cum laude, from the Georgetown University Law Center, where she was a member of Order of the Coif and served as an editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. She clerked for The Honorable Marvin J. Garbis, judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. 

Books

• Reproducing Racism:  How Everyday Choices Lock in White Advantage, (NY: New York University Press, 2014). - (www)   Reviews of Reproducing Racism: How Everyday Choices Lock In White Advantage:  
  • Van C. Tran, “Book Review of Reproducing Racism: How Everyday Choices Lock In White Advantage,” 130 Political Science Quarterly 167 (Spring 2015). - (PDF) - (Link)
  • Richard R.W. Brooks, "The Banality of Racial Inequality," 124 Yale Law Journal 2626 (2015) - (PDF)

Articles and Book Chapters

• “Evolutionary Dynamic Theory and Empirical Method" In Methodologies of Law and Economics (Thomas Ulen, ed.) (Elgar, forthcoming 2017). - (PDF)
• "The Dynamics of Excessive Force," 2016 University of Chicago Legal Forum 407 (2016). - (www)
• “Should Law Keep Pace with Society? Relative Update Rates Determine the Co-Evolution of Institutional Punishment and Citizen Contributions to Public Goods,”  (with Alexander Isakov and David Rand) 6 Games 124 (June 2015). - (PDF) - (SSRN)
• "Critical Race Theory Meets Social Science," (with Devon Carbado), 10 Annual Review of Law and Social Science 149 (2014). - (www)
• "Faking It," Review of "Racial Capitalism," by Nancy Leon (126 Harvard Law Review 2151 (2013) and "Selling Diversity Short," by Stacy Hawkins (40 Rutgers Law Records 68 (2012). JOTWELL: The Journal of Things We Like (Lots) September 18, 2013. - (www)
• "Poverty, Prisons, and Power," Review of "Post Racial Racism: Racial Stratification and Mass Incareration in the Age of Obama," by Ian F. Haney Lopez (98 California Law Review 1023 (2010)). JOTWELL: The Journal of Things We Like (Lots) October 22, 2012. - (www)
• "Lessons From Mazibuko: Shifting From Rights to the Commons," 3 Constitutional Court Review 317 (2010). - (www)
• "Racial Cartels" 16 Michigan Journal of Race and Law 45 (2010) - (Hein)
• “Them that Has, Gets,” 27 Mississippi College Law Review 373 (2008). - (Hein)
• “A Dangerous Supplement,” 55 Journal Legal Education 80 (2005) (review-essay reviewing Duncan Kennedy, Legal Education and the Reproduction of Racial Hierarchy) - (Hein)
• “Locked In Segregation,” 12 Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law 197 (2004) - (Hein)
• “Tacking Left: A Radical Critique of Grutter,” 21 Constitutional Commentary 191 (2004) - (Hein)
• “Locked In Inequality: The Persistence of Discrimination,” 9 Michigan Journal of Race and Law 31 (2003) - (Hein)
• “Access, Adequacy, and Equality: The Constitutionality of School Fee Financing in Public Education,” 19 South African Journal on Human Rights 382 (2003) - (Hein)
• ““Easy for You to Say”: An Essay on Outsiders, the Usefulness of Reason, and Radical Pragmatism,” 57 University of  Miami Law Review 939 (2003) - (Hein)
• “A Bad Subject,” 9 Cardozo Women’s Law Journal 501 (2003) - (Hein)
• “Direct Measures: An Alternative Affirmative Action Program for Law Schools,” 7 Michigan Journal of Race and Law 1 (2001) (lead article) - (Hein)
• “Left(Over) Rights,” 22 Cardozo Law Review 1113 (2001) - (Hein)
• “Left Over Rights: Are Rights Still Useful After the Critique of Indeterminacy?” in Journal of Law, Text and Culture (Austin Sarat and Penny Pether, eds. 2001) - (Hein)
• “Barriers to Entry: A Market Lock-in Model of Discrimination,” 86 Virginia Law Review 727 (2000). - (Hein)
• “Introduction,” Race Is, Race Isn't: Critical Race Theory and Qualitative Studies in Education (Laurence Parker and Donna Deyhle eds. 1998). - (PDF)
• “Guerrillas in Our Midst: The Assault on Radicals in American Law,” 96 Michigan Law Review 1658 (1998). - (Hein)
• “Deconstructing the Distinction Between Bias and Merit,” 85 California Law Review 1449 (1998) - (Hein)

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

LLM Guide
June 5, 2023
Re: USC Gould School of Law

Law schools have been adapting to the increase in technological advancements, especially with the increased need for attorneys with the creation of AI. “Attorneys work on the front end, conducting threat assessments to ensure that their clients’ systems and data are protected, and on the back end, to navigate any legal issues that may arise as a result of the attacks," Gruzas said.

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP

Robin Craig
May, 2023

"Did Sackett Bring Clarity to 'Waters of the United States'?," 54:6 Trends (forthcoming July/August 2023) (accepted May 31, 2023).

Robin Craig
May, 2023

"Tribal Water Rights and Tribal Health: the Klamath Tribes and the Navajo Nation During the Covid-19 Pandemic," 16 Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy 35 (published 2023), was summarized and promoted on the Race, Racism, and the Law website run by Professor Vernellia Randall, University of Dayton School of Law.

Robin Craig
May, 2023

"Governing Shifting Species and Changing Ecosystems: What role Might Ecological Grief Play?," keynote address at the Species on the Move 2023 International Conference, Bonito Springs, Florida, on May 19, 2023.