July 25, 2024 – Stanford, CA – Stanford Law School (SLS) announced today that E. Tendayi Achiume will join its faculty as a Professor of Law. Achiume is an international legal scholar focusing on international human rights law, international refugee law and international migration law. Prior to joining SLS, she was the inaugural Alicia Miñana Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, where she taught since 2014. Achiume will spend the 2024-2025 academic year as a scholar in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, working on a book project exploring the role of transnational corporations in shaping international borders and migration. 

“There are so many reasons to look forward to joining the SLS community, and the top of that list includes the student body,” said Achiume. “The passion and tenacity of the students are palpable and I know it will be a joy to work with them.”

Achiume’s academic research explores the global governance of racism and xenophobia, and the legal and ethical implications of colonialism and other forms of empire for the governance of international migration. In recognition of the “exceptional creativity” and “promise for important future advances,” of Achiume’s research in these areas, she was awarded a 2023 MacArthur Fellowship, commonly known as the “genius grant.”

“We are delighted to welcome Professor Achiume to the Stanford Law faculty,” said George Triantis, dean and Richard E. Lang Professor of Law. “She brings pathbreaking scholarship at the intersection of racial justice and global migration, and about its implications for foundational concepts of international law. She is also an exceptional teacher who developed strong relationships with our faculty and students over the past two years as the Leah Kaplan Visiting Professor of Human Rights at SLS.”

At UCLA, Achiume won the law school’s 2020 Distinguished Teaching Award, the highest honor for excellence in teaching, as well as the Eby Award for the Art of Teaching. She also served as a faculty director of the UCLA Law Promise Institute for Human Rights, a research associate with the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa and as a research associate with the Refugee Studies Center at the University of Oxford. Achiume is an extraordinary professor in the Department of Jurisprudence at the University of Pretoria.

In November 2017, the United Nations Human Rights Council appointed Achiume the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, making her the first woman to serve in this role since its creation in 1993.

In 2016, she was appointed to co-chair the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law (ASIL), and she is the former co-chair of the ASIL Migration Law Interest Group. In 2021, she was appointed to the American Journal of International Law Board of Editors and in 2022 selected as a commissioner for the O’Neill-Lancet Commission on Racism, Structural Discrimination and Global Health.

Achiume clerked for Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke and Justice Yvonne Mokgoro on the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Following her clerkships, she was awarded the Bernstein International Human Rights Fellowship to work for the Refugee and Migrant Rights Project unit at Lawyers for Human Rights in Johannesburg. She also taught on the faculty of the International Human Rights Exchange Programme based at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Achiume earned her B.A. from Yale University and her J.D. from Yale Law School. She also earned a Graduate Certificate in International Development Studies from Yale University, and an International Baccalaureate Diploma from the United World Colleges (UWC), Atlantic College.

About Stanford Law School

Stanford Law School is one of the nation’s leading institutions for legal scholarship and education. Its alumni are among the most influential decision makers in law, politics, business, and high technology. Faculty members argue before the Supreme Court, testify before Congress, produce outstanding legal scholarship and empirical analysis, and contribute regularly to the nation’s press as legal and policy experts. Stanford Law School has established a model for legal education that provides rigorous interdisciplinary training, hands-on experience, global perspective and focus on public service, spearheading a movement for change.