Professor

Katheryn

Russell-Brown

Professor Katheryn Russell-Brown holds a joint appointment with the School of Law and the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.  A leading scholar in race and criminal justice, Professor Russell-Brown previously served as the Levin, Mabie & Levin Professor of Law and director of the Race and Crime Center for Justice at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. For 18 years, she also directed the University of Florida’s Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations.

Prior to joining the University of Florida law faculty in 2003, Professor Russell-Brown taught in the Criminology and Criminal Justice Department at the University of Maryland for 11 years. She has been a visiting law professor at American University and the City University of New York (CUNY) and a lecturer at Howard University; her first teaching position was at Alabama State University.

Professor Russell-Brown teaches, researches and writes on issues of race and crime and the sociology of law. Her article, “The Constitutionality of Jury Override in Alabama Death Penalty Cases,” was cited in the U.S. Supreme Court decision Harris v. Alabama (1995).

In 2009, Professor Russell-Brown was awarded a Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowship. Her project focused on ways to integrate criminal justice issues into the elementary education curriculum.

Professor Russell-Brown’s books include Criminal Law (SAGE, 2015) an undergraduate textbook, The Color of Crime, 2d edition (New York University Press, 2009), Protecting Our Own: Race, Crime and African Americans (Rowman and Littlefield, 2006) and Underground Codes: Race, Crime, and Related Fires (New York University Press, 2004). She is also the author of a children’s book, Little Melba and Her Big Trombone (Lee & Low, 2014).

Professor Russell-Brown received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, her law degree from the University of California, Hastings and her PhD in criminology from the University of Maryland.