a long time civil rights advocate and litigator, michelle alexander won a 2005 soros justice fellowship and now holds a joint appointment at the kirwan institute for the study of race and ethnicity and the moritz college of law at ohio state university. alexander served for several years as director of the racial justice project at the aclu of northern california, and subsequently directed the civil rights clinics at stanford law school, where she was an associate professor. alexander is a former law clerk for justice harry blackmun on the u.s. supreme court and has appeard as a commentator on cnn, msnbc, and npr. the new jim crow is her first book.
