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Dorothy Roberts, who joined the Law School in 1998 with a joint appointment as a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, has been named to the Kirkland & Ellis Chair. Roberts, a frequent speaker and prolific scholar on issues related to race, gender and the law, also is the recent recipient of a Fulbright Award to study and teach in Trinidad next academic year.

In her latest book, "Shattered Bonds: the Color of Child Welfare," Roberts argues that the child welfare discourse is marked by an abysmal failure to grasp the racial harm inflicted by the child welfare system. The book cites the racial disparity in foster care and concludes that black communities have become targets of stigmatized services designed to investigate and punish struggling parents rather than preserve families.

An earlier book, "Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction and the Meaning of Liberty," describes a deeply rooted assault on the reproductive autonomy of black women. The winner of the 1998 Myers Center Award for the Study of Human Rights in North America, the book calls for redefining reproductive liberty to take into account the relationship between reproductive rights and racial justice.

Roberts also is the co-author of casebooks on constitutional law and women and the law. She has published more than 50 articles and essays in books, scholarly journals, newspapers and magazines, including Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, University of Chicago Law Review, Social Text, and The New York Times. Her widely cited article, "Punishing Drug Addicts Who Have Babies: Women of Color, Equality, and the Right of Privacy" (Harvard Law Review,1991) is included in a number of anthologies.

Before becoming a full time faculty member, she was a visiting scholar at the Law School and the recipient of the Outstanding First-Year Course.

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