Fordham Law Associate Professor Atinuke Adediran has been selected for a prestigious Visiting Scholar position by the Russell Sage Foundation, where she will be spending a year in residence working on her first book, exploring the rhetoric of racial equality in the business marketplace.
Adediran said she was “honored and humbled” to be selected for the program. “The fellowship is one of the premiere scholarly opportunities in the social sciences, and provides a vibrant interdisciplinary environment to foster the exchange of ideas,” Adediran said. “To be around brilliant scholars from a wide range of fields in law, sociology, economics, political science, psychology, and others is truly a unique opportunity.”
Adediran was selected as one of 16 other Visiting Scholars nationwide for the 2024-2025 academic year. In a recent announcement, the Russell Sage Foundation described the program as a way for scholars to “pursue research and writing projects that reflect the foundation’s commitment to strengthening the social sciences and conducting research for the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.”
“The Russell Sage Fellowship is one of the most coveted fellowships in the world of social sciences,” said Youngjae Lee, professor of law and associate dean for research at Fordham Law. “Tinu is a tremendous legal scholar who has been astonishingly productive, with a seemingly endless supply of energy and ideas. This fellowship is yet another confirmation that we have a true interdisciplinary scholar who is highly respected not only in law but also in the social sciences.”
While in residence, Adediran will be working on the completion of her book Disclosureland: How Companies Construct Their Public Image and Discount People of Color (under contract, Cambridge University Press).
The book will explore how large companies, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, have used the rhetoric of racial equality “to shield themselves from criticism about racial inequities instead of enacting corporate policies that would benefit communities of color,” said Adediran.
“Disclosureland comes at a significant moment in America when race relations have become extremely polarizing,” she added. “There is a need for deep textual analysis of the legal and sociological processes and impact of the murder of George Floyd on some of the largest corporations and their stakeholders. This book offers that and more.”
Adediran joined Fordham Law’s faculty in the fall of 2021, and received the University’s Distinguished Research Award for Interdisciplinary Studies in 2023. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the areas of race and law, corporations, nonprofits, social impact, and law and social science. She will be taking a sabbatical from her teaching duties while on the fellowship.
With this fellowship, next year will be the second year in a row that Fordham Law School will have a Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar. Julie Suk, the Hon. Deborah A. Batts Distinguished Research Scholar and professor of law, currently holds the the position of Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar for the 2023-2024 academic year.