About Jody
Jody David Armour is the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at the University of Southern California. A widely published scholar and popular lecturer, he studies the intersection of race, law, morality, psychology, politics, ordinary language philosophy, and the performing arts. His latest book, N*gga Theory: Race, Language, Unequal Justice, and the Law, looks at America’s criminal justice system – among the deadliest and most racist in the world – through deeply interdisciplinary lenses.
Armour is a Soros Justice Senior Fellow of The Open Society Institute’s Center on Crime, Communities & Culture, and he is on the Board of Directors for LEAP (Law Enforcement Action Partnership), an international 501(c)(3) non-profit of police, prosecutors, judges, corrections officials, and other law enforcement officials advocating for criminal justice reform.
He has published articles in Stanford Law Review, California Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, American Journal of Criminal Law, Vanderbilt Law Review, Boston College Law Review, Southern California Review of Law and Women’s Studies, University of Colorado Law Review, University of Pittsburgh Law Review, Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, Southwestern University Law Review, and Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law. His award-winning book, Negrophobia and Reasonable Racism: The Hidden Costs of Being Black in America (New York University Press) addresses three core concerns of the Black Lives Matter movement—namely, racial profiling, police brutality, and mass incarceration. Armour also appears as a legal analyst on NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, PBS, MSNBC, NPR, and many other television, radio, and internet news programs. At the request of the US Department of State and European Embassies, Professor Armour has toured major universities in Europe to speak about social justice as well as Hip Hop culture and the law.
His work on the intersection of law, language, moral luck, and the performing arts grew into a unique interdisciplinary and multi-media analysis of racial justice titled Race, Rap, and Redemption and featuring performances by Ice Cube, Mayda de Valle, Saul Williams, Lulu Washington Dance Theater, Macy Gray Music Academy Orchestea, Mailon Rivera.
Armour currently teaches Criminal Law, Accident Law (Torts), and a seminar on Stereotypes, Prejudice, and the Rule of Law.
