Richard Thompson Ford

Richard Thompson Ford
- George E. Osborne Professor of Law
- Room N330, Neukom Building
Expertise
- Civil Rights
- Critical Theory
- Jurisprudence
- Law & Geography
- Local & State Government
Biography
An expert on civil rights and antidiscrimination law, Richard Thompson Ford (BA ’88) has distinguished himself as an insightful voice and compelling writer on questions of race and multiculturalism. His scholarship combines social criticism and legal analysis and he writes for both popular readers and for academic and legal specialists. His work has focused on the social and legal conflicts surrounding claims of discrimination, on the causes and effects of racial segregation, and on the use of territorial boundaries as instruments of social regulation. Methodologically, his work is at the intersection of critical theory and the law.
Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1994, Professor Ford was a Reginald F. Lewis Fellow at Harvard Law School, a litigation associate with Morrison & Foerster, and a housing policy consultant for the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has also been a Commissioner of the San Francisco Housing Authority. He has written for the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor and for Slate, where he is a regular contributor. His latest books are Universal Rights Down to Earth and Rights Gone Wrong: How Law Corrupts the Struggle for Equality.
Education
- BA Stanford University 1988
- JD Harvard Law School 1991
Courses
Affiliations & Honors
- Member, Directing Committee of the Modern Thought and Literature Program
- Member, Urban Studies Faculty
- Member, American Law Institute
Faculty on Point | Professor Richard Thompson Ford on Dress Codes
News
Leave the Sweatshirt at Home. Dining Dress Codes Are Back
The New York Times
“Dress signifies a lot of highly contested issues: gender identity and gender roles, race, class, status,” said Richard Thompson Ford, a professor at Stanford Law School and the author of “Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History.” “When we can’t really talk about these issues openly, we struggle…
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