Who We Are

The Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging seeks to do paradigm-shifting work at a critical time in history, in which rapid demographic changes are creating increasingly diverse national and global communities. Responding to the unique challenges and opportunities of this moment, the Center aims to advance interdisciplinary legal scholarship on diversity, inclusion, and belonging; support the Law School community as it strives to live up to those values; and share expertise with the broader world through targeted engagement with public and private institutions.

Although it originated in civil-rights law, the field of diversity and inclusion has in recent decades moved into other disciplines. The Center seeks to revive the field's legal roots, and the Law School provides a natural home for that aspiration. As one of the first law schools to admit women, to implement a non-discrimination policy on the basis of sexual orientation, and to function as part of a global network university, NYU School of Law has long been a leader on matters of diversity and inclusion. The Center builds on these proud traditions.

The desire to belong and to be fully included in society is a universal human trait. The Center aims to maximize the potential of every individual to flourish, with a particular focus on those who, historically and in the present day, have been impeded in their quest for belonging.

Video: Kenji Yoshino on why the Center is launching at a critical time

Speaker Series

The Center offers an annual speaker series featuring leaders from academia and the public and private sectors on a range of topics relating to diversity and inclusion.

Speakers for the 2019-20 academic year are:

  • Kwame Anthony Appiah, Professor of Philosophy and Law at NYU School of Law [September 26, 2019]. Watch the video recording.
  • Katherine Phillips, Reuben Mark Professor of Organizational Character at Columbia Business School, and Director of the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership & Ethics at Columbia Business School [October 29, 2019]. Watch the video recording.
  • Dolly Chugh, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at NYU Stern School of Business and author of The Person You Mean To Be: How Good People Fight Bias (2018) [February 20, 2020]; and
  • John Sides, Michael Tesler, and Lynn Vavreck, authors of Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America (2018) [April 2, 2020].

Our 2019-20 speaker series is generously sponsored by:

Learn more about the Center's speaker series.