38 Facts About Dorothy Roberts

Dorothy E Roberts was born on March 8,1956 and is an American sociologist, law professor, and social justice advocate.

Dorothy Roberts is the Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor, George A Weiss University Professor, and inaugural Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dorothy Roberts writes and lectures on gender, race, and class in legal issues.

Dorothy Roberts's focuses include reproductive health, child welfare, and bioethics.

Dorothy Roberts has published over 80 articles and essays in books and scholarly journals, including Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, and Stanford Law Review.

Dorothy Roberts is a 2024 recipient of the MacArthur "Genius Grant".

Dorothy Roberts's father was an anthropologist, and her mother was his research assistant.

Dorothy Roberts' parents met at the University of Chicago, where her father was her mother's professor in her PhD program.

Dorothy Roberts then attended Harvard Law School, receiving her Juris Doctor in 1980.

From 1998 to 1994, Dorothy Roberts was an Associate Professor of Law at Rutgers University School of Law-Newark, and from 1994 to 1998, she was a Professor of Law and was elected twice to serve as the Faculty Graduation Speaker in both 1992 and 1996.

Dorothy Roberts was a visiting Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1994, and a fellow at the Harvard University Program in Ethics and the Professions from 1994 to 1995.

Dorothy Roberts as visiting professor at Northwestern University School of Law in 1997.

Dorothy Roberts was appointed the Bacon-Kilkenny Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Fordham University School of Law in 2006.

In 2019, Dorothy Roberts gave the Betsy Wood Knapp '64 Lecture at Wellesley College.

Dorothy Roberts's scholarship focuses on race, gender, bioethics, and the intersection of law and social justice, particularly concerning reproductive rights, child welfare, and systemic inequalities in health care.

Dorothy Roberts has published more than 50 articles and essays in books, scholarly journals, newspapers, and magazines, including Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, University of Chicago Law Review, Social Text, and The New York Times.

Dorothy Roberts has explored topics such as race, reproduction, and motherhood in her scholarship, specifically focusing on the experiences of Black women.

Dorothy Roberts's article, "Punishing Drug Addicts Who Have Babies: Women of Color, Equality, and the Right of Privacy", has been widely cited.

Dorothy Roberts serves as chair of the board of directors of the Black Women's Health Imperative, on the board of directors of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, and on the advisory boards of the Center for Genetics and Society and Family Defense Center.

Dorothy Roberts serves on a national panel that is overseeing foster care reform in Washington State and on the Standards Working Group of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

Dorothy Roberts has received awards from the National Science Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Dorothy Roberts has drawn parallels between what she sees as current US imperialism and white supremacy.

Dorothy Roberts has asserted that US torture of terrorist suspects is a tool to maintain supremacy just as violence has been used to maintain white supremacy.

Dorothy Roberts has compared the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison to racist lynchings of Black Americans, emphasizing the ways in which state-sanctioned violence perpetuates systemic oppression.

Dorothy Roberts has asserted that women should be able to choose if they bear a child and how they raise it, advocating for reproductive justice.

Dorothy Roberts concludes that this choice, along with the choice to have a relationship with the child, must be respected by the state and by society, which does not happen to Black women who are often subject to government interference during their parenthood.

Dorothy Roberts contends that the same racial ideologies that justify punitive welfare policies and the over-policing of Black communities shape disparities in healthcare and family regulation.

Dorothy Roberts has been a strong critic of the intersection of race and medical science, particularly the ways in which genetic research, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries reinforce the false notion of race as a biological category.

Dorothy Roberts argues that health disparities stem from social inequalities rather than inherent genetic differences, and that medical racism continues to shape race-specific treatments and policies, reinforcing existing hierarchies rather than addressing structural inequities in healthcare.

Dorothy Roberts has been a vocal critic of global injustices, often drawing connections between racial oppression in the US and state violence in international contexts.

Dorothy Roberts work explores the intersections of race, gender, and the law, with a particular focus on reproductive justice, bioethics, and the carceral state.

Dorothy Roberts has authored four influential books that critically examine the impacts of race on reproductive rights, family regulation, and medical ethics, shaping discourse in legal and social justice fields.

Dorothy Roberts contends that these policies reflect a broader framework of white supremacy that has historically viewed Black women's reproductive capabilities as a societal threat.

Dorothy Roberts discusses the racial disparities in CPS investigations, noting that Black and Indigenous families are disproportionately scrutinized and that children from these communities are more likely to be removed from their homes compared to White children.

Dorothy Roberts explores the dangers of the continued research of race in the science and medical fields in her book Fatal Invention.

Dorothy Roberts asserts that genomic science and biotechnology is reinforcing the concept of race as a biological category.

Dorothy Roberts argues that the system disproportionately investigates and separates Black families, often in cases involving neglect rather than abuse.

Dorothy Roberts contends that what is classified as neglect frequently stems from poverty-related conditions such as inadequate housing, food insecurity, and lack of childcare, rather than intentional harm.