Dean Spade

Dean Spade is a Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law, specializing in Poverty Law, Administrative Law, and Critical Transgender Politics. He teaches courses including Administrative Law, Gender and Law, Policing and Imprisonment, and Law and Social Movements. His research focuses on queer and trans liberation grounded in racial and economic justice, with a particular emphasis on dismantling carceral systems and advancing mutual aid frameworks.

Spade earned a Bachelor of Arts from Barnard College and a Juris Doctor from UCLA Law School. He previously served as a Williams Institute Law Teaching Fellow at UCLA and Harvard Law School. His influential works include Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law (2011, revised 2015) and Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) (2020), translated into multiple languages.

His advocacy includes co-founding the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and producing the documentary Pinkwashing Exposed: Seattle Fights Back! (2015). Spade critiques the Nonprofit Industrial Complex and advocates for grassroots, community-driven solutions. He has received the Dukeminier Award (2008) for his article Documenting Gender.

Spade’s teaching integrates ethical practice, trauma stewardship, and movement lawyering, emphasizing collaboration and mutuality. His syllabi and courses reflect interdisciplinary engagement with anti-colonial, disability, and feminist scholarship.