Jyoti Nanda studies criminal law and juvenile law with a focus on how legal actors, institutions and doctrines have responded, or failed to respond, to the dramatic expansion of the carceral state. She is interested in the intersections of criminal law and social hierarchies shaped by race, age, gender, dis/ability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and immigration. Her research draws on her background in Ethnic Studies and her experience as a youth advocate and civil rights lawyer to provide a better understanding of the contemporary legal practices within the historical context of racial and economic inequality in the United States. Nanda is the American Bar Association (ABA) nominated Reporter/Author for the forthcoming Juvenile Justice National Standards, and her research and writing have been featured in national press in print, TV, and radio.
Before coming to GGU Law, Nanda was the Binder Clinical Teaching Fellow at UCLA Law School where she founded the Youth & Justice Clinic. Prior to that, she taught Legal Research & Writing, numerous public interest courses, a seminar on the criminalization of girls of color with Distinguished Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw and served as a lead faculty member in both the Critical Race Studies and Epstein Public Interest Law Programs. She started her career as a Skadden Fellow and civil rights attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. Nanda is a graduate of Northwestern Law and U.C. Berkeley. Born in Nairobi, she is a proud immigrant and the daughter of parents who were refugees and immigrants from Pakistan/India and Kenya.