Emily Ryo

Emily Ryo is a Professor of Law and Sociology at Duke Law School, where she joined in July 2023. Previously, she was a Professor at USC Gould School of Law and a Research Fellow at Stanford Law School. She holds a JD from Harvard Law School and a PhD in Sociology from Stanford University. Her career also includes legal practice at Cleary, Gottlieb, and clerkship with Judge M. Margaret McKeown.

Her research focuses on immigration, criminal justice, legal attitudes, and procedural justice, employing interdisciplinary quantitative and qualitative methods. She explores systemic issues such as racial disparities, access to counsel, citizenship rights, and the socio-economic impacts of immigration enforcement.

Recent publications highlight immigration detention as a carceral system, racialized wealth extraction, and policy-induced stigma. Her work bridges law, sociology, and criminology, addressing legal noncompliance, social inequality, and judicial dynamics in migrant incarceration.

Scientific awards include the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, ABF/JPB Access to Justice Fellowship, and the 2023 Law and Society Association Article Prize.

Her NSF grant and other fellowships support her empirical scholarship. She contributes to academic discourse through editorial advisory roles and interdisciplinary collaborations.