Camille Gear Rich joined the USC Gould School of Law faculty in the fall of 2007 following five years of private practice. Her research and teaching interests include constitutional law, feminist legal theory, family law, children and the law and the First Amendment. She is the founder and director of PRYSM: The USC Initiative for the Study of Race, Gender, Sexuality and the Law. She is also the founding director of Gould’s First Generation Legal Professionals program. Rich is widely know for her research on law, discrimination and identity formation issues related to race, class, gender and sexuality. Rich was a visiting professor at Stanford Law School in Winter/Spring of 2017. She was a visiting professor at Yale Law School in Spring 2019. Professor Rich was a visiting online professor at the University of Virginia Law School in Spring 2021.

Prior to entering private practice, Rich clerked in the Southern District of New York for District Judge Robert L. Carter. She also clerked on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals for Circuit Judge Rosemary Barkett. She joined Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP in 2003, where she worked primarily on general commercial litigation and internal investigations. Rich also worked on various pro bono matters involving Title VII retaliation claims and disability rights. Her primary pro bono project was her work as co-counsel with the Legal Aid Society Prisoners Rights Project on a prisoners’ rights class action raising constitutional claims on behalf of all female prisoners in New York State prisons against New York State Department of Corrections officials. Plaintiffs challenged various prison staffing, supervision and training policies that created an unreasonable risk for female prisoners of sexual abuse by male corrections officers. Professor Rich was awarded the Legal Aid Society Pro Bono Award in recognition of her work on prisoners’ rights claims.

Rich has served as the Associate Provost of Diversity and Inclusion, and the Associate Provost for Student and Faculty Initiatives in the Social Sciences. She served in the Provost Office for 5 years. While serving as Associate Provost she founded Diversity and Inclusion Awareness Week, that grew into a 100 event diversity conference that provided diversity-related training sessions to the USC community. Additionally she was co-founder of Wicked Problems Practicuum, a cross-school program that invited graduate students from various programs to create think-tanks that partner with community and government agencies to collaborate on solving wicked problems affecting global mega-cities. She also launched the cross-school First Generation Professionals Program, which brings FGP students from across USC’s 19 schools together to share resources and experiences.

Rich graduated with honors from Brown University in 1993. She graduated from Yale Law School in 1998 and was a senior editor on the Yale Law Journal and the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism. She was awarded a postgraduate research fellowship at Yale Law School, during which she began her research on ways that antidiscrimination laws can better accommodate the shifting contingent nature of racial and ethnic identity. In 2020 & 2021 Professor Rich’s work was honored and included in an annual compendium of best articles on Women and the Law.

Professor Camille Gear Rich discusses Who Defines Your Race with Los Angeles Time columnist Sandy Banks; see video

Recent and Upcoming Presentations

• American University Washington College of Law, Racial Ambiguity Blues (book chapters presentation) (April 2022)
• Creating the Inclusive Classroom (with Susan Ko & Erwin Chemerinsky) (April 2022)
• NALP Annual Education Conference, Imagining the Anti-Racist Law Firm (April 2022)
• University of Maryland School of Law, Constitutional Law Schmooze, The Welfare Queen and the Construct of Citizenship (March 2022)
• Eversheds Sutherland, Black History Month Keynote Address, Racial Ambiguity Blues (book chapter presentation) (February 2022)
• The University of Rochester, Keynote SBAI Teach-In on Reproductive Justice, The Welfare Queen and the Right To Reproduce (February 2022)
• University of Virginia School of Law, Foundations: Unpacking the Goals of Race and the Law Curriculum (February 2022)
• American Association of Law Professors Annual Conference, Foundations: Unpacking the Goals of Race and the Law Courses (January 2022)
• The Athletics Administrator’s Guide to Social Justice (senior leadership USC athletics), (December 2021)
• Implicit Bias and Microaggressions: Navigating Discrimination Risks in Legal Practice, with Judicial Perspectives from the Los Angeles Superior Court (with Carol Ross Burnett) (November 2021)
• NYSCAA & NYSDA Annual Conference, Keynote, The War on Poverty and the March Towards Social Justice (October 2021)
• UC Irvine School of Law, Symposium The Interplay of Race, Gender, Class, Crime and Justice, (invitation to present The Racial Politics of Masculinity in the Era of Elective Race: Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman and the Dilemmas of Desiring Whiteness) (April 2014)
• UCLA Law School, UCLA Institute for Research and Employment, Symposium on Race, Labor and the Law (invitation to explore the implications that the article Marginal Whiteness has for labor politics and labor law litigation) (February 2014)
• Stanford Law School, Conference co-hosted by Stanford Law Review and Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, The Civil Rights Act at 50 (invitation to present Post-Racial Hydraulics: The Role of the Fair Labor Standards Act in the Repackaging of Race and Gender Discrimination Claims) (January 2014)
• 2014 AALS Annual Meeting, Association of American Law Professors, Hot Topic/Bridge Program Panel: Self Defense, Stand Your Ground Laws, and the Shooting of Trayvon Martin (invitation extended to present The Racial Politics of Masculinity in the Era of Elective Race: Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman and the Dilemmas of Desiring Whitenes) (January 4, 2014)
• Southern California Junior Faculty Workshop, Elective Race: Recognizing Race Discrimination in the Era of Racial Self-Definition, (September 28, 2013)
• Berkeley Law School,The Racial Politics of Masculinity in the Era of Elective Race: Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman and the Dilemmas of Desiring Whiteness (presentation honoring Angela Harris at Harris Festschrift) (September 27, 2013)
• Stanford Law School, Race and the Law Roundtable, (May 2013)
• UC Irvine School of Law, Critical Race Theory Speaker Series, Elective Race: Recognizing Race Discrimination in the Era of Racial Self Definition, (March 2013)
• University of Maryland College of Law: Family Secrets Symposium, Innocence Interrupted: Reconstructing Fatherhood in the Shadow of Child Molestation Law, (March 2013)
• University of Minnesota Law School, Faculty Workshop, Innocence Interrupted: Reconstructing Fatherhood in the Shadow of Child Molestation Law, (February 2013)
• USC Gould School of Law, I,Elective Race: Voluntary Racial Self-identification and the Future of Title VII, (February 2013)
• University of Minnesota Law School, Faculty Workshop. Elective Race: Voluntary Racial Self Identification and the Future of Title VII, (November 2012)
• UC Berkeley Law School, Seminar on Race and Sexuality, Marriage Markets and the Price of Masculinity, (October 2012)
• Feminist Legal Theory Collaborative Research Network Conference, Intersectionality in the Era of Elective Race, (October 2012)
• Fordham Law School, Faculty Workshop, Elective Race: Voluntary Racial Self Identification and the Future of Title VII, (September 2012)
• Northwestern/Loyola Law School – Labor and Employment Law Colloquium “Affirmative Action in the Era of Elective Race: Racial Commodification and the Lesson of Elizabeth Warren,” September, 2012
• Law and Society Association Conference, Innocence Interrupted: Reconstructing Fatherhood in the Shadow of Child Molestation Law, (June 2012)
• “Elective Race: Racial Determination Trials in the Post Racial Era, Duke Law School Center on Race Law and Politics” (May 2012)
• University of Chicago Law School Workshop on Regulating Family, Sex, and Gender, Innocence Interrupted: Reconstructing Fatherhood in the Shadow of Child Molestation Law (April 2012)
• University of Iowa Faculty Workshop, Innocence Interrupted: Reconstructing Fatherhood in the Shadow of Child Molestation Law (March 2012)
• Association for Law Culture and the Humanities, Panlist, Innocence Interrupted: Reconstructing Fatherhood in the Shadow of Child Molestation Law (March 2012)
• USC Critical Race Theory/Critical Legal Studies Speaker Series, Innocence Interrupted: Reconstructing Fatherhood in the Shadow of Child Molestation Law (February 2012)
• Feminist Legal Theory Collaborative Research Network Conference, Innocence Interrupted: Reconstructing Fatherhood in the Shadow of Child Molestation Law (January 2012)
• USC Faculty Workshop, Innocence Interrupted: Reconstructing Fatherhood in the Shadow of Child Molestation Law (November 2011)
• USC Center for Law Humanities and Culture, October 2011 (Commentary on Rick Bank’s recent book Is Marriage for White People), Masculinity Crisis of Marriage Crisis? (forum presentation)
• USC Critical Legal Studies/Critical Race Theory Working Group, Marginal Whiteness (October 2011)
• Sixth Annual Labor and Employment Law Colloquium, Marginal Whiteness  (September 2011)
• Opening Plenary, AALS Rethinking Equality Workshop, Working Identity and the Female Law Professor (feminist legal theory conference), (June 2011)
• UC Irvine Law, Race and Socio-economic Class: Searching for Equality, UC Irvine Law School, Marginal Whiteness Revisited, (March 2011)
• AALS Annual Conference, Labor and Employment Section, Elective Race: Voluntary Racial Self Identification and the Enforcement of Title VII (January 2011)
• UCLA CRS Symposium: Intersectionality: Challenging Theory, Reframing Politics, Transforming Movements, Intersectionality As Political Strategy: Discursive Maneuvers in the Obama Presidential Campaign (March 2010)
• UC Berkeley Women of Color Collective Faculty Colloquium, Marginal Whiteness (March 2010)
• Moderator, UCLA CRS Symposium: Intersectionality: Challenging Theory, Reframing Politics, Transforming Movements (Participants: Julie Su, Cheryl Harris and Paul Butler), Intersectionality and the Courts (March 2010)
• AALS Mid Year Work Law Conference, Desiring Whiteness

Select DEI Training*

• Northwestern School of Law, From Colorblindness to Social Justice: Understanding Law School Pedagogical Norms and Defaults and their Consequences for the Law School Classroom (August/ September 2022)
• University of Michigan School of Law, From Colorblindness to Social Justice: Understanding Law School Pedagogical Norms and Defaults and their Consequences for the Law School Classroom (expected May 2022)
• Berkeley School of Law, Empirically Tested Strategies for Achieving an Inclusive Classrooms (2021)
• Boston University School of Law, From Colorblindness to Social Justice: Understanding Law School Pedagogical Norms and Defaults and their Consequences for the Law School Classroom; Inclusive Classroom Strategies for Gen-Z Students (2021)

Other law school DEI presentations available upon request*

Recent conferences and events co-sponsored by PRYSM: The USC Initiative for the Study of Race, Gender, Sexuality and the Law:

• PRYSM Book Talk Series: Skimmed – Breastfeeding, Race and Injustice – by Andrea Freeman (2020)
  • Session 1: PRYSM & USC Marshall School of Business with Sharoni Little
  • Session 2: PRYSM & USC Medical School with Joyce Richie
  • Session 3: PRYSM & First Baptist Congregational Church

• Fireside Chat: Dr. Melina Abdullah, “Building Across Communities” (2020) (co-sponsored with USC IGMI) program information available here
• Panel Discussion: “Protectors of Predators or Prey: Bystanders and Upstanders Amid Sexual Crimes” (2019) (co-sponsored with USC Law Review); program information available here
• Race Sexual Expression and Civil Rights Law: A Conversation About the Daniele Watts Controversy; webcast available here.
• Reframing the Welfare Queen: Feminist and CRT Alternatives to Existing Anti-Poverty Discourse; program information available here.
• Beating Mental Illness: A Dialogue on Race, Gender and Disability Stereotypes in Police Brutality Controversies; program schedule available here.
• Elective Race: Identifying Race Discrimination in the era of Racial Self Definition (co-sponsored with USC PILF CLE Program)