Human rights | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
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Human rights

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Core faculty

Samuel R. Bagenstos

Arlene Susan Kohn Professor of Social Policy
Bagenstos specializes in constitutional and civil rights litigation, with interests in labor and employment, disability rights, and housing. He currently serves as general counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is on leave from the university.
Core faculty

Yazier Henry

Teaching Professor in Public Policy
Henry has written and published on the political economy of social voice, memory, trauma, identity, peace processes, Truth Commissions, international transitional justice and international humanitarian law. His research and writing projects focus on how structural and administrative violence come to be institutionalized during post-colonial transitions. His current work is on the discourse of human rights, structural violence and the politics of official voice.
Core faculty

Ann Chih Lin

Associate Professor of Public Policy; Director, Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies
Lin, a political scientist, studies how people experience policy implementation. Her current work examines racial and ethnic difference in the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic; bias reduction against Muslims; national security scapegoating of immigrant groups; conservatism among immigrants; and subnational labor migration policy.
Core faculty

Fabiana Silva

Assistant Professor of Public Policy
Silva studies the mechanisms that perpetuate (or mitigate) group-based labor market inequality, with a focus on social networks and employer discrimination. She examines how employers reward the referrals of black and white job applicants, the relationship between employers' racial attitudes and their hiring behavior, and the determinants of how people are racially classified by others. She also investigates how different ways of framing immigration affect attitudes towards immigration policy.
Postdoctoral fellow

Kristina Fullerton Rico

Predoctoral fellow
Kristina Fullerton Rico is a sociologist who studies migration, transnationalism, aging, gender, family, and race and ethnicity. Her research focuses on the experiences of undocumented immigrants and their families who are physically divided but digitally close thanks to accessible communication technologies.

Faculty expertise

Shape your future alongside dedicated mentors and world-class scholars who are redefining public policy.At the Ford School, you’ll connect with extraordinary faculty who do more than teach—they challenge, inspire, and champion the next generation of ...
State & Hill

Faculty news, fall 2025

Dec 8, 2025
Ford School experts are publishing research, sharing their knowledge, and getting recognized.
State & Hill

Michigan redefines support for new families

Dec 8, 2025
Rx Kids, the nation’s first community-wide prenatal and infant cash program, has improved infant health, reduced evictions, and achieved a high return on investment. Now, with new state commitments, it will reach about one-third of all births statewi...
News

Announcing the Ford School Fall Events Schedule

Aug 22, 2025
Ford School fall events will look at the state of U.S. democracy, international crises, and the Abundance debate. The Ford School is pleased to announce an exciting lineup of events for the autumn 2025, engaging with our students, faculty, staff, and...
Publication

Reframing civil rights advocacy to tackle 21st century issues

Jun 26, 2025
Civil rights appeals have historically been instrumental in driving social change and safeguarding human rights in the United States. But invoking civil rights to garner public support for addressing present-day social problems may actually backfire,...
In the Media

Ali suspects Trump to speak out on humanitarian efforts in Gaza

Apr 12, 2025 Fox News
In a conversation with Fox News, Javed Ali, professor at the Ford School, offered insights on Israel's current military strategy. Ali stated, "Now that we're almost a full month into the resumption of high-intensity IDF operations in the Gaza Strip a...
News

Rico comments on Trump policies' impact on immigrant communities

Feb 23, 2025
Center for Racial Justice Postdoctoral Fellow Kristina Fullerton Rico explores what she calls the dangerous implications of President Trump's deportation policy in an essay in The Conversation.  Citing extensive social science research on U.S. immigr...
In the Media

Ali on Israel-Hamas hostage exchange

Jan 19, 2025 ABC
Javed Ali, Ford School Professor and former NSC Director for Counterterrorism, says "we will just have to wait and see how things play out" with Israel and Hamas interpreting the evolving situation and watch "how both sides stick to the terms of the ...
In the Media

Ali on implementation of ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas

Jan 17, 2025 ABC
"Now the really hard part is going to start with the implementation of phase one" of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas says Javed Ali, Ford School professor and Former National Security Council Senior Director for Counterterrorism.
News

Exciting events at the Ford School this January

Jan 10, 2025
The Ford School is pleased to announce an exciting lineup for our January 2025 Policy Talks @ the Ford School series and other special public events hosted with partners from across campus. Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise note...
State & Hill

Spotlights, fall 2024

Dec 17, 2024
Welcome, changemakersThe Ford School’s Center for Racial Justice proudly welcomes its third cohort of Visiting Fellows: writer, filmmaker, and community organizer Charlene Carruthers; racial justice lawyer, historian, and organizer Amanda Alexander; ...
State & Hill

Faculty news, fall 2024

Dec 17, 2024
William G. Axinn is the interim director of the Ford School’s International Policy Center. He recently published “Early-life risk factors for depression among young adults in the United States general population: Attributable risks and gender differe...
State & Hill

Discourse: Fordies in the news, fall 2024

Dec 17, 2024
  “Most likely the perception within the Israel Defence Forces and at the political level within Netanyahu’s war cabinet is that they have the momentum. . . . when one side believes it has the momentum against its adversary, you don’t want to give it...
State & Hill

Soundbites: Policy Talks @ the Ford School - fall 2024

Dec 17, 2024
   We looked at other countries to get a sense of the range and then compared it to what we had in the state. Then we looked at a number of different ways that it's administered. I think if you’ve seen one single-payer system, you’ve seen one single-...
News

One Year Later, No End in Sight for Mideast Wars

Nov 24, 2024
“Hamas has got the war they wanted.” That assessment came from Middle East scholar Hussein Ibish, who believes there has been a fundamental shift in the war between Israel and Hamas over the past year: from a more conventional airstrike campaign conc...