On July 1, USC Gould Professor Stephen Rich, who is the Maurice Jones, Jr. – Class of 1925 Professor of Law, stepped into a new role as the inaugural Vice Dean for Academic Research and Intellectual Life. Get to know him, his reason for teaching and his vision for how he can serve the Gould community in his role as vice dean.
What inspired you to pursue law and your specialty in particular?
What inspired me to pursue law was actually going to law school. I know that sounds funny, but I went to law school knowing that I wanted to teach university students. I was really drawn in by law and the conversations that we had in the classroom and in my first summer job, which was for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Having the chance to do real practical work and seeing what kinds of work were possible through law really inspired me to continue practicing and to teach students.
What excites you most about this leadership role?
What excites me most about my new role as vice dean of academic research and intellectual life first is that I get a chance to work with Dean Franita Tolson, which is and has been wonderful. The second thing that excites me about it is how open this is. We haven’t had this role before, so there’s quite a lot to create. When I think about my role now, part of that role is a kind of stewardship, where I am making sure that what we have continues to flourish. That includes looking ahead and seeing what may come next, so I’d like as much as possible to engage my colleagues in helping determine the direction we want to go and using this role to help us get there.
What goals do you hope to accomplish?
The most important thing for me, being the first person to hold the role, is to make sure that we lay a foundation for folks who hold this position in the future, and that we begin to build some resources that we haven’t had in the past to support faculty research. I’m also working with my colleagues to make sure that we are getting our voices out there, so that our intellectual contributions are being heard and that we have excellent feedback that we can receive from speakers who come here and address us.
Is there anything else you want the Gould community to know about you?
What first drew me to law was teaching. My grandfather taught at Howard University for 33 years and this is a way that I hold a connection with him. It also makes me think quite a lot about what it is that our students receive from us in the classroom. Today, for example, I had the opportunity in my “Race, Racism and the Law” class to teach materials from two of my professors, extending a bridge from them to my students, which is an exciting thing to be able to do. And it’s exciting to see my students interact with those materials. I’m so proud of what we’ve been able to create as a community.
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