Bernadette Atuahene

Bernadette Atuahene is a Professor of Law at the USC Gould School of Law, specializing in property law and land restitution. She holds a JD from Yale Law School, an MPA from Harvard, and a bachelor’s degree from UCLA. Previously, she served as the James E. Jones Chair at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Her work focuses on land dispossession in the African Diaspora, particularly in South Africa and Detroit, addressing systemic racism in property taxation and governance.

Education: UCLA (B.A.), Yale Law School (J.D.), Harvard (MPA).
Career Highlights: Judicial clerk at South Africa’s Constitutional Court, associate at Cleary Gottlieb, consultant for the World Bank and South African Land Claims Commission.
Key Projects: Authored We Want What’s Ours (2014) on South Africa’s land restitution, and Plundered (2025) on Detroit’s racialized tax policies. Directed the award-winning documentary Sifuna Okwethu about South African land struggles.

Research Interests: Dignity takings/restoration frameworks, transitional justice, predatory governance, and racial equity in urban policy. Her NSF-funded Detroit project exposed unconstitutional property tax assessments affecting Black homeowners.

Awards: Fulbright Fellowship, CFR International Affairs Fellowship, Princeton L&PA Fellowship, John Hope Franklin Award (2020), and multiple accolades for her Detroit work. Her documentary won the Pan African Film Festival Audience Choice Award.

Grants and Advocacy: Led the Coalition for Property Tax Justice to combat unconstitutional assessments in Detroit. Her work bridges academia and activism, influencing policy reforms and public discourse on racialized property systems.