Shaun Ossei-Owusu, National Fellow, is a presidential assistant professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where his research and teaching focuses on criminal law, social inequality, and the legal profession. He was born and raised in the Bronx, N.Y. and received his JD and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. He spent his Fellowship working on his manuscript, The People's Champ: Legal Aid from Slavery to Mass Incarceration, which is under contract with Harvard University Press. The book uses archival research, court documents, oral histories, and interviews to highlight the role of legal aid organizations in longstanding struggles for racial justice. His public writing has appeared in the American Prospect, Boston Review, and Jacobin, and he has received awards from the American Bar Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Science Foundation.
Selected Work
- The Sixth Amendment Façade: An article about how race has shaped the development of the constitutional right to counsel.
- Coronavirus and the Politics of Disposability: An article about the race, class, and gender politics of COVID-19.
- More Mobility, More Problems: A review of the ethical problems that arise in low-income students’ path toward upward mobility.