Michael Chang
Lecturer
michang50@yahoo.com
Office Hours: By Appointment
Michael Chang (J.D. UCLA; Ph.D. Ethnic Studies, U.C. Berkeley; M.A. Anthropology, New School for Social Research; B.A., Anthropology, Vassar College) currently teaches courses in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies and Ethnic Studies; “Politics, Public Policy, and Asian American Communities” (AAS145AC), “Race, Rights and Citizenship” (ES182AC), and “Racism and U.S. Law” (ES144AC). All three courses satisfy the American Culture breadth requirement.
He is a practicing government civil rights attorney where he enforces federal laws prohibiting discrimination. He has taught at law schools as a teaching fellow and visiting assistant professor for “Race and Law,”Education Law,” and “Administrative Law” courses. Michael was previously a state assistant inspector general.
His research areas include examining the relationship between socio-cultural norms and practices and legal institutions and laws. In particular he is interested in the dynamic process where these norms are considered in the law’s determination of individual versus group rights, civil rights versus civil liberties.
Michael’s dissertation for his U.C. Berkeley Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies examined the relationship between discourses on race and citizenship rights and public policy during the 1996 Clinton administration re-election cycle’s campaign finance reform controversy, coined by the media as “Asian Donorgate.” The dissertation is published as: “Racial Politics in the Era of Transnational Citizenship” (2004, Rowman and Littlefield).