Katheryn K. Russell University of Florida, Levin College of Law

Katheryn Russell-Brown is the Chesterfield Smith Professor of Law and Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations at the University of Florida, Levin College of Law.  Professor Russell-Brown received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, law degree from the University of California, Hastings, and Ph.D. in criminology from the University of Maryland.  Prior to joining the University of Florida law faculty in 2003, Professor Russell-Brown taught in the Criminology and Criminal Justice department at the University of Maryland for 11 years.  She has been a visiting law professor at American University and the City University of New York (CUNY).  She has been a lecturer at Howard University and her first teaching position was at Alabama State University.  Professor Russell-Brown teaches, researches, and writes on issues of race and crime and the sociology of law.  Her article, "The Constitutionality of Jury Override in Alabama Death Penalty Cases," was cited in the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Harris v. Alabama (1995).  In 2009, Professor Russell-Brown was awarded a Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowship.  Her project focused on ways to integrate criminal justice issues into the elementary education curriculum.  Professor Russell-Brown’s work includes the textbook Criminal Law (Sage, 2016) (co-authored with Angela J. Davis) and books, The Color of Crime, 2d edition (New York University Press, 2009), Protecting Our Own: Race, Crime and African Americans, (Rowman and Littlefield, 2006), and Underground Codes: Race, Crime, and Related Fires (New York University Press, 2004).