Research Agenda

My research agenda examines the interplay of Diversity, Dominance, and Discrimination (3D) in the private ordering of capital markets, corporations, and educational institutions. I bridge law, social psychology, and organizational sociology to examine how laws, doctrines, and ideologies—especially those claiming to promote equality—reproduce the very racial hierarchy law seeks to remove. Across my projects, I develop and apply a sociocultural model of discrimination that foregrounds dominance—as opposed to racial bias or animus—as the primary force operating through legal, institutional, and psychological mechanisms for sustaining racial inequality. The model undergirds a normative call for a shift in our we conceptualize DEI, civil rights, and the relationship between anti-discrimination and private law. 

Diversity, Dominance & Discrimination in Private Ordering

This stream investigates how legal tools, doctrines, and institutional practices—especially in private law—are used to preserve racial hierarchy under the veneer of inclusion. I examine how private agreements (such as venture capital contracts and corporate nondisclosure agreements) and regulatory regimes (like SEC disclosure rules or compliance frameworks) structure control, suppress accountability, and enable symbolic diversity without redistributing power. This work centers on venture capital, corporate governance, and tech policy to reveal how legal structures often reproduce dominance—even as firms and founders appear to be participating equitably in the market.

Implicit social Dominance & The Future of Anti-Discrimination Law

Here I build and test a sociocultural model of racial discrimination grounded in dominance theory, offering an alternative to traditional legal models that prioritize intent and animus. This research leverages psychological methods—including the development of an Implicit Social Dominance Orientation (ISDO) measure—to explain why egalitarian individuals and institutions often resist structural remedies. I connect these insights to anti-discrimination law, interrogating doctrinal limits of Title VII, §1981, and remedial race-consciousness in the face of structural dominance.

The Legal Life of identity & intersectionality

This area of my research a genda examines how law constructs, constrains, and operationalizes racial and intersectional identity. I analyze how institutional and doctrinal investments in identity—through representation, credentialing, and inclusion logics—can reproduce the very hierarchies they purport to dismantle. Drawing from critical race theory, social psychology, and legal scholarship, I explore the consequences of law’s inability to fully engage the complexity of identity in shaping belonging, legitimacy, and social meaning.