Stephen M. Rich

Stephen M. Rich serves as the Maurice Jones, Jr. – Class of 1925 Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Academic Research and Intellectual Life at the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law, where he teaches employment discrimination law, constitutional equality law, and civil procedure.

His educational background includes:

• JD from Yale Law School
• MA and BA in African American Studies from Yale University

Rich also received a Fulbright Scholarship to study music in Fes, Morocco, and was awarded the A. Bartlett Giammati Fellowship during his undergraduate studies.

Rich's research critically examines antidiscrimination law through interdisciplinary lenses, blending statutory and constitutional analysis with sociology and social psychology. His work challenges conventional approaches to racial classifications, prejudice, and diversity frameworks, arguing for nuanced understandings of social injustice and the practical limitations of legal enforcement. Recent scholarship focuses on reimagining diversity beyond affirmative action to advance equal opportunity.

His publications from 2011-2016 reveal consistent thematic evolution: early work analyzed social psychology's role in discrimination enforcement (Against Prejudice, 2011), progressed to examining textualism's impact on employment law (A Matter of Perspective, 2014), and culminated in reconceptualizing diversity's relationship to equal opportunity (What Diversity Contributes, 2016).

Rich's accolades include:

• William A Rutter Distinguished Teaching Award (first junior faculty recipient at USC Gould)
• Fulbright Scholarship and Reginald Lewis Fellowship
• Yale prizes for senior essay and master's thesis
• Olin Fellowship at Yale Law School

As Vice Dean, Rich shapes academic research initiatives while maintaining an active scholarship profile. His career trajectory—from Ninth Circuit clerkship to Cleary Gottlieb litigation practice before entering academia—infuses his work with practical legal insight. Though specific current grants aren't detailed, his Reginald Lewis Fellowship supported race and political equality research at Harvard Law School.