Brittany Farr

Brittany Farr is an Assistant Professor of Law at New York University School of Law. She previously served as a Sharswood Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on private law and race, particularly how marginalized populations navigated inhospitable legal systems. Her work examines enslaved and free African Americans' use of contract law to assert bodily autonomy and legal agency during and after slavery. She holds a JD (Yale Law School, 2019), a PhD in Communication (University of Southern California, 2016), and a BA in Folklore & Mythology (Harvard College, 2010).

Education:

• J.D., Yale Law School, 2019
• Ph.D. in Communication, University of Southern California Annenberg School, 2016
• B.A. Folklore & Mythology, Harvard College, 2010

Research Interests: Farr’s scholarship bridges legal history, cultural studies, and critical race theory. Her work explores how marginalized groups utilized legal frameworks amid systemic oppression, with a focus on African American experiences. Her doctoral dissertation, Reproducing Fear Amid Fears of Reproduction, analyzed laws and policies around Black motherhood. Recent work includes Breach by Violence (UCLA Law Review, 2022) and The Race Case in Contracts (NYU Law Review, 2025).

Publications: Her writing spans law reviews, policy reports, and interdisciplinary journals. Themes include legal history’s role in modern pedagogy, race in contract law, and Black feminist approaches to legal archives.

Awards:

• NAACP Legal Defense Fund Earl Warren Scholarship (JD)
• Louise Kerckhoff Prize for Best Graduate Paper (PhD)

Teaching: Courses include Contract Theory Seminar: History, Race, and Pedagogy and Law and Cultural Studies. She emphasizes integrating race into contract law curricula and uses science fiction to explore utopian legal frameworks.