Fordham Law Professor Catherine Powell has been selected as one of only two Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Program in Law and Public Policy Crane Fellows for the 2025-2026 academic year. The program is a successor to the Program in Law and Public Affairs Program fellowship. Powell is also spending the year as a (mostly remote) Scholar-in-Residence at the Constitutional Accountability Center, a think tank based in Washington, D.C.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled—and honored—to serve in these roles,” said Powell, who is returning to Princeton, years after attending as a student in SPIA’s master’s degree program.
An award-winning expert on human rights and equality, Powell is the Eunice Hunton Carter Distinguished Research Scholar Professor of Law at Fordham Law School. She has served in several positions in the federal government, including on the White House Gender Policy Council, White House National Security Council, and Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff.
During her upcoming sabbatical year, Powell is studying the implications of emerging technologies for civil rights and civil liberties.
“This fellowship is a well-deserved recognition of Professor Powell’s leadership and her outstanding accomplishments in the fields of human rights and equality theory,” said Associate Dean for Research Bennett Capers. “The opportunity to devote concentrated time to her scholarship will undoubtedly yield important and lasting contributions to the field.”
Powell is the fifth Fordham Law faculty member to have been selected for one of Princeton University’s prestigious fellowships. She follows Professor Kimani Paul-Emile (2020–2021); former Fordham Law Professor Robin A. Lenhardt (2019–2020); Archibald R. Murray Professor of Law Tanya K. Hernandez (2010-2011); and Martin Flaherty (2003-2004), Leitner Family Professor of Law and founding co-director of the Fordham Law Leitner Center for International Law and Justice.
Before Powell joined the Fordham Law faculty, she taught at Columbia Law School, where she was a clinical professor, won Teacher of the Year, and was founding director of the Human Rights Clinic and the Human Rights Institute. At Fordham, Powell has taught and published widely on questions of constitutional law, human rights, feminist theory, and civil rights in a digital age. She has also served on various boards, including the Human Rights Watch board of directors and the American Journal of International Law board of editors.
Powell coined the term “Color of Covid” to describe the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on Black and Latino communities—as part of her work on the digital economy—through a series of CNN op-eds and a Yale Journal of Law and Feminism article. CNN’s Don Lemon, Van Jones, and Sanjay Gupta co-hosted a “Color of Covid” mini-series, acknowledging Powell’s work. In addition to her academic scholarship, she has published in the New York Times, Newsweek, and The Nation, among other outlets.