The University of Pittsburgh School of Law has appointed Gabby M.H. Yearwood, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and advocate for social and racial justice, as Managing Faculty Director for the law school’s newly established Center for Civil Rights and Racial Justice. Yearwood will work with the Center’s co-directors, Professor William M. Carter, Jr. and Professor Sheila Velez Martinez.
Yearwood’s experience and expertise will support the Center’s mission to amplify and address the region’s most challenging issues concerning racial equity. As Managing Faculty Director, he will manage equity-focused projects and events, draft policy papers and grants to promote critical social justice research, and establish critical partnerships in the community to promote civic education.
“I am very excited and honored to be a part of the center. My goal is to help the center achieve the important goals Professors Carter and Velez Martinez have set forth. I look forward to collaborating with people from the Law School, Pitt and the City of Pittsburgh as we address these important issues.”
During the past decade, Yearwood has dedicated much of his research to the structures of race, gender, and sexuality in different aspects of collegiate athletics. As a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Pitt and the former Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department, he published an article, “Anthropology and Anti-Racism,” in response to the ongoing violence against Black communities in America. Yearwood holds a secondary appointment with the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Programs at Pitt. Prior to Pitt, Yearwood was a Lecturer and Academic Advisor at the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned his PhD in Anthropology focusing on Black Diaspora Studies and Masculinity. He graduated with a Master of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Virginia and a Masters of Science in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania.
Pitt Law’s Center for Civil Rights and Racial Justice, now taking shape, will serve as a centralized hub for related teaching, interdisciplinary research, and important policy work. Working in collaboration with partners across the University and in the region, the Center will continue to identify programs and innovative solutions that will transform communities and create new opportunities for minoritized and underserved communities. Learn more here.