Tanya K. Hernández

Photo of Professor Tanya K. Hernández 240x240

Archibald R. Murray Professor of Law

Curriculum Vitae and Academic Biography
646-312-8786
[email protected]
Office: Room 8-137

Faculty Assistant: Diane Pinero, [email protected]

Areas of Expertise: Antidiscrimination Law, Comparative Law, Critical Race Theory, Race and Social Justice

  • Tanya Katerí Hernández is the Archibald R. Murray Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law, where she teaches Anti-Discrimination Law, Comparative Employment Discrimination, Critical Race Theory, The Science of Implicit Bias and the Law: New Pathways to Social Justice, and Trusts & Wills. She received her A.B. from Brown University, and her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as Note Topics Editor of the Yale Law Journal.

    Professor Hernández is an internationally recognized comparative race law expert and Fulbright Scholar who has visited at the Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, in Paris and the University of the West Indies Law School, in Trinidad. She has previously served as a Law and Public Policy Affairs Fellow at Princeton University, a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Research on Women at Rutgers University; a Faculty Fellow at the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality, and as a Scholar in Residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Professor Hernández is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, the American Law Institute, and the Academia Puertorriqueña de Jurisprudencia y Legislación. Hispanic Business Magazine selected her as one of its annual 100 Most Influential Hispanics. Professor Hernández serves on the editorial boards of the Revista Brasileira de Direito e Justiça/Brazilian Journal of Law and Justice, and the Latino Studies Journal published by Palgrave-Macmillian Press.

    Professor Hernández’s scholarly interest is in the study of comparative race relations and anti-discrimination law, and her work in that area has been published in numerous university law reviews like Cornell, Harvard, N.Y.U., U.C. Berkeley, Yale and in news outlets like the New York Times, among other publications including her books Racial Subordination in Latin America: The Role of the State, Customary Law and the New Civil Rights Response (including Spanish and Portuguese translation editions), Brill Research Perspectives in Comparative Law: Racial Discrimination, and Multiracials and Civil Rights: Mixed-Race Stories of Discrimination. Her most recent book from Beacon Press is Racial Innocence: Unmasking Latino Anti-Black Bias and The Struggle for Equality https://racialinnocence.wordpress.com/.

    Education

    • Yale Law School, JD 1990
      Yale Law Journal, Note Topics Editor
    • Brown University, AB, Sociology 1986
    • Federal University of Bahia, study-abroad program 1985
  • Selected Publications

    • Book, Racial Innocence: Unmasking Latino Anti-Black Bias and the Struggle for Equality (Becon Press) August 2022
    • Book, Multiracials and Civil Rights: Mixed-Race Stories of Discrimination (forthcoming from NYU Press)
    • Book Chapter, “Latino Anti-Black Bias and the Census Categorization of Latinos: Race, Ethnicity or Other?” in the book Anti-Blackness, eds. João Costa Vargas & Moon-Kie Jung (under review with Duke University Press)
    • Book Chapter, "Race and The Law in Latin America," in Routledge Handbook of Afro-Latin American Politics" eds. Kwame Dixon & Ollie Johnson (forthcoming from Routledge)
    • Book Chapter, "Law and Race in Latin America," in Handbook of Law and Society in Latin America, eds. Tatiana Alfonso, Karina Ansolabehere, and Rachel Sieder (forthcoming from Routledge)
    • Book Chapter, "Constitutional Controversies: Comparing Constitutions in Latin America regarding Race Discrimination," in Oxford Handbook of Constitutional Law in Latin America, eds. Roberto Gargarella and Conrado Hubner Mendes (forthcoming from Oxford University Press)
    • Book Chapter, "El Derecho a la Igualdad y a la No Discriminación" in "Afrodescendientes e Inclusión Social: Más Equidad, Más Derechos" (forthcoming from the Organization of American States)
    • Book Chapter, "The limits of U.S. racial equality with a Latin American constitutional 'right to work' - a thought experiment," in Constitutionalism in the Americas, eds. Colin Crawford and Daniel Bonilla Maldonado (Edward Elgar pub 2018) pp 258-286
    • Symposium Remarks, "Advocacy in Ideas: Legal Education and Social Movements," 36.1 Columbia Journal of Gender and Law 40- 60 (2018)
    • Racially-Mixed Personal Identity Equality, 15 Law, Culture and the Humanities 1-11 (2017) 
    • Book Chapter, "Michael Olivas, the Critical Race Theory Lat-Crit Activist Scholar," in Law professor and accidental historian : the scholarship of Michael A. Olivas, 235-242. edited by Ediberto Roman (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2017)
    • Subordinação racial no Brasil e na América Latina: o papel do Estado, o Direito Costumeiro e a Nova Resposta dos Direitos Civis" (Salvador: Editora UFBA 2017) (Federal University of Bahia Press) Direct link to book here/Leia a obra completa aqui:  http://bit.ly/2odC65o
    • Book Chapter, "Afro-Latinos" in Keywords for Latina/o Studies, 7-8 ed. Deborah R. Vargas, Nancy Raquel Mirabal, and Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes (NYU Press 2017)
    • Book Chapter, "Latino - Black Inter-Ethnic Conflict: Segregated Together with "Fair" Housing," in Minority Relations: Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation, 219-49 eds. Greg Robinson & Robert S. Chang (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2016)
    • Envisioning the United States in the Latin American myth of ‘racial democracy mestizaje,’ 11(2) Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies (2016) 189-205
      http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/TaBy7SYJShc8jCfnhxUd/full
    • Book Chapter, "Multiracial in the Workplace: A New Kind of Discrimination?" In Gender, Race and Ethnicity, in the Workplace: Emerging Issues and Enduring Challenges, 3-25 ed. Margaret Foegen Karsten (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2016)
    • Book Chapter, "Making Implicit Bias Research Relevant in Employment Discrimination Cases," in volume Title VII of the Civil Rights Act After 50 Years: Proceedings of the New York University 67th Annual Conference on Labor, 247-272 (LexisNexis Matthew Bender, 2015).
    • Colorism and the Law in Latin America -Global Perspectives on Colorism Conference Remarks, 14 Wash. U. Global Stud. L. Rev. 683-693 (2015).
    • One Path for 'Post-Racial' Employment Discrimination Cases -- The Implicit Association Test Research as Social Framework Evidence, 32 Journal of Law & Inequality 307-44 (2014)
      http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2327133.
    • Sotomayor’s Supreme Court Race Jurisprudence: “Fidelity to the Law,” Yale L.J. Forum (Mar. 24, 2014), http://yalelawjournal.org/forum/sotomayors-supreme-court-race-jurisprudence.
    • Defending Affirmative Action: An International Legal Response, in vol. 29 Civil Rights Litigation and Attorney Fees Annual Handbook (eds. Steven Saltzman & Cheryl I. Harris 2013).
    • Racial Subordination in Latin America: The Role of the State, Customary Law and the New Civil Rights Response (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2013) (https://sites.google.com/site/racisminlatamerica/)

      La subordinación racial en Latinoamérica: El papel del Estado, el derecho consuetudinario y la nueva respuesta de los derechos civiles (Siglo del Hombre Editores, Ediciones Uniandes, Colección Nuevo Pensamiento Jurídico, Bogotá Colombia, 2013) 
    • The Value of Intersectional Comparative Analysis to the ‘Post-Racial’ Future of Critical Race Theory: A Brazil – U.S. Comparative Case Study, 43 Ct. L. Rev. 1407-1437 (2011).
    • HATE SPEECH AND THE LANGUAGE OF RACISM IN LATIN AMERICA: A LENS FOR RECONSIDERING GLOBAL HATE SPEECH RESTRICTIONS AND LEGISLATION MODELS, 32 U. Penn. J. Int'l Law 805-841 (2011) (http://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1103&context=jil).
    • "What Not to Wear" -- Race and Unwelcomeness in Sexual Harassment Law: The Story of Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, in Women and the Law Stories 277-306 (2010 Foundation Press book chapter, Elizabeth Schneider & Stephanie Wildman eds.).
    • Afro-Latin@s and the Latino Workplace, in The Afro-Latin@ Reader: History and Culture in the United States 520-526 (2010 Duke Univ. Press book chapter, Juan Flores & Miriam Jimenez Roman, eds.).
    • Employment Discrimination in the Ethnically Diverse Workplace, Judges J., vol. 49, no. 4, Fall 2010, at 33.
    • Latinos at Work: When Color Discrimination Involves More Than Color, in Shades of Difference: Why Skin Color Matters 236-244 (2009 Stanford Univ. Press book chapter, Evelyn Nakano Glenn, ed.).
    • European Multiculturalism as Compared to Diversity in the United States: A View from the Employment Discrimination Context, in Multiculturalisms: Different Meanings and Perspectives of Multiculturalism in a Global World (2009 book chapter from Stampfli Press, Barbara Pozzo, ed.).
    • Latino Inter-Ethnic Employment Discrimination and the “Diversity” Defense, 42 Harvard Civil Rights Civil Liberties Law Review 259-316 (2007) (lead article of issue 2).
    • Latino Anti-Black Violence in Los Angeles: Not “Made in the USA,” 13 Harvard Journal African American Public Policy 37-40 (2007).
    • A Critical Race Feminism Empirical Research Project: Sexual Harassment & The Internal Complaints Black Box, 39 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1235-1303 (2006). Available online at: http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1020&context=faculty_scholarship.
    • The Intersectionality of Lived Experience and Anti-Discrimination Empirical Research, in Handbook of Employment Discrimination Research: Rights and Realities 325-335 (Laura Beth Nielsen & Robert L. Nelson eds., 2005 American Bar Foundation & Kluwer Academic Publishing) (book chapter).
    • Sex in the [Foreign] City: Commodification and the Female Sex Tourist, in Rethinking Commodification: Cases and Readings in Law and Culture 222-242 (Joan Williams & Martha Ertman eds., NYU Press 2005) (book chapter).
    • To Be Brown in Brazil: Education & Segregation Latin American Style, 29 N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change 683-717 (2004-05). Available online at: http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=faculty_scholarship.
    • Afro-Mexicans and the Chicano Movement: The Unknown Story – A Review of Ian F. Haney Lopez’s “Racism on Trial: The Chicano Fight for Justice,” 92 Cal. L. Rev. 1537-1551 (2004). Available online at: http://www.jstor.org/pss/3481424.
    • A Comparative Assessment of Racial Harassment in the Americas, 8 Employee Rights & Employment Policy Journal 169-179 (2004).
    • The Racism of Sexual Harassment, in Directions in Sexual Harassment Law 479-95 (Catharine MacKinnon & Reva Siegel eds., 2004 Yale Univ. Press) (book chapter).
    • Comparative Judging of Civil Rights: A Transnational Critical Race Theory Approach, 63 La. L. Rev. 875-886 (2003).
    • “Too Black to Be Latino/a:” Blackness and Blacks as Foreigners in Latino Studies, 1 Latino Studies 152-159 (2003). Available online at: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/lst/journal/v1/n1/index.html.
    • Multiracial Matrix: The Role of Race Ideology in the Enforcement of Anti-Discrimination Laws, a United States – Latin America Comparison, 87 Cornell Law Review 1093-1176 (2002) (lead article of issue 5). Available online at: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/clr/vol87/iss5/1/.
    • Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. as the Model of Scholarly Activism: The Lens of Racial History and Comparative Race Relations For Illuminating the Path to Racial Equality, 20 Yale Law & Policy Review 331-339 (2002).
    • The Buena Vista Social Club: The Racial Politics of Nostalgia, in Latina/o Popular Culture 61-72 (NYU Press 2002) (book chapter).
    • Sexual Harassment and Racial Disparity: The Mutual Construction of Race and Gender, 4 U. Iowa J. of Gender, Race & Justice 183-224 (2001) (reprinted in Katharine T. Bartlett, Angela P. Harris, Deborah L. Rhode, Gender and Law: Theory, Doctrine, Commentary 1205 (3d edition 2002).
    • An Exploration of the Efficacy of Class-Based Approaches to Racial Justice: The Cuban Context, 33 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1135-1171 (2000). Available online at: http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=faculty_scholarship.
    • Multiracial Discourse: Racial Classifications in an Era of Color-Blind Jurisprudence, 57 Md. L. Rev. 97-173 (1998) (reprinted in Mixed Race America and the Law: A Reader 205-211 (Kevin Johnson ed., NYU Press 2002), and in Juan F. Perea & Richard Delgado, Race and Races: Cases and Resources for a Diverse America 69 (2000)).
    • Construction of Race and Class Buffers in the Structure of Immigration Controls and Laws , 76 Or. L. Rev. 731-764 (1997) (reprinted in Timothy Davis et al., A Reader on Race, Civil Rights, and American Law: A Multiracial Approach (2001)).
    • Note, Bias Crime Statutes: The Struggle Against Unconscious Racism in the Prosecution of Racially-Motivated Violence, 99 Yale L.J. 845-864 (1990) (cited in State v. Mitchell,
      169 Wis.2d 153, 485 N.W.2d 807, 61 USLW 2035, Wis., June 23, 1992 (NO. 90-2474-CR).

Tanya Hernandez Press Highlights

Refinery29: Prof. Tanya Hernández Says “Latinos are not just one appearance as lumping us all together as Brown suggests.”

KBLA TALK 1580 Radio: Prof. Tanya K. Hernández Spotlights Racism Among People of Color on “Areva Martin In Real Time” Podcast

Juneteenth 2023 Programming Includes Prof. Tanya Hernández Delivering Keynote Address at ABA Section on Civil Rights and Social Justice Event

VOA: Prof. Tanya Hernández on “Why Some Nonwhite Americans Espouse Right-Wing Extremism”

Slate: Prof. Tanya K. Hernández Talks Identity Complexities Within Hispanic Community on “What’s Next” Podcast

APNews.com: Prof. Tanya Hernandez Comments on Rise of Latinos in White Supremacy Movement

The Washington Post: Prof. Tanya Hernàndez on Why Ignoring Growth of Latinos in White Supremacy Movement is Dangerous

theGrio: Archibald R. Murray Professor of Law Tanya Hernández Weighs in on the Latino Category Census Debate

The New Yorker: Prof. Tanya Hernandez on the Census Question, Should Latinos Be Considered a Race?

The Philadelphia Sunday Sun: Archibald R. Murray Professor of Law Tanya Hernández Speaks at 27th Annual Arturo A. Schomburg Symposium

Los Angeles Times: My Black Ancestors Were Erased From My Family’s Memory. But I Found Them

2023 AALS Conference Features Slate of Fordham Law Professors

Professor Tanya Hernández’s “Racial Innocence” Included in Smithsonian’s Best Books of 2022

Column: Nury Martinez Divided L.A. with Racism. Can the Next Mayor Help Us Heal?

At Book Launch, Professor Tanya Hernández Envisions Paths Forward for the Latino Community

Let’s Be Blunt: Latinos Can Be Racist Too

Upcoming Speaker Series Explores Lawyers’ Role as Public Intellectuals in Conversations on Race

A Preview of Fall Events At Fordham Law

Professor Tanya Hernandez Examines Latino Anti-Black Racism in New Book 

The Proud Boys’ Latino Connection, Explained