Khiara M. Bridges is the Earl Warren Professor of Public Law at UC Berkeley School of Law. She is a nationally-recognized expert on the intersection of race, class, and reproductive rights. Her scholarship has appeared in the most influential law reviews in the country, including the flagship law journals at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and UC Berkeley, among many others. She is also the author of four books: Reproducing Race: An Ethnography of Pregnancy as a Site of Racialization (2011), The Poverty of Privacy Rights (2017), Critical Race Theory: A Primer (2019, 2026), and Expecting Inequity: How the Maternal Health Crisis Affects Even the Wealthiest Black Americans (2026).
Bridges graduated as valedictorian from Spelman College, receiving her degree in three years. She received her J.D. from Columbia Law School and her Ph.D., with distinction, from Columbia University’s Department of Anthropology. She speaks fluent Spanish and basic Arabic, and she is a classically-trained ballet dancer who danced professionally in New York City for twenty years before moving to the Bay Area.
Education
B.A., summa cum laude, Spelman College
J.D., Columbia Law School
Ph.D., with distinction, Columbia University
Khiara M Bridges is not teaching any Law courses in Spring 2026.
What to expect when you’re expecting racism
Professor Khiara M. Bridges, author of Expecting Inequity: How the Maternal Health Crisis Affects Even the Wealthiest Black Americans joins host Brittany Luse to talk through why wealth and status can’t outrun racism at the doctor’s office.
Professor’s Research Finds That for Black Americans, Wealth Offers Scant Protection From Pregnancy Risks
Khiara M. Bridges’ new book probes how maternal health disparities affect Black mothers at every rung of the socioeconomic ladder and the impact of interpersonal and structural racism on their pregnancies.
For Black Americans, wealth offers scant protection from pregnancy risks, scholar finds
Professor Khiara M. Bridges discusses her latest book Expecting Inequity: How the Maternal Health Crisis Affects Even the Wealthiest Black Americans.
SCOTUS deals major blow to the Voting Rights Act. What now?
Professor Khiara M. Bridges discusses the Supreme Court’s 6 to 3 decision in the landmark case, Louisiana v. Callais.
Khiara Bridges: You Can’t Buy Your Way Out of Dying in Childbirth
Professor Khiara M. Bridges discusses her new book Expecting Inequity.
Expecting Inequity with Khiara M. Bridges
Professor Khiara M. Bridges discusses her recent book Expecting Inequity: How the Maternal Health Crisis Affects Even the Wealthiest Black Americans.
A Hidden Crisis in America: Why the System Is Failing Black Mothers
Professor Khiara M. Bridges joins Michel Martin on Amanpour & Company to discuss her new book Expecting Inequity.
The Hidden Health Inequality Facing Even the Wealthiest Black Mothers
A Q&A with Professor Khiara M. Bridges where she discusses her new book Expecting Inequity: How the Maternal Health Crisis Affects Even the Wealthiest Black Americans.
Why Black People Can’t Earn Our Way Out of Racism in Maternal Care: A Q&A With Khiara Bridges
In her new book, Professor Khiara M. Bridges found that healthcare provided through private markets leaves more room for discrimination and unequal care to take root than in a public program like Medicaid.
Gen Z Doulas Are Transforming Black Birthing Care
“What I’ve observed is an increase in awareness about the efficacy of doulas,” says Berkeley Law Professor Khiara M. Bridges. “Training programs have proliferated. Students, activists, people who otherwise might not have entered this field are becoming doulas so they can help save lives, or at least make childbirth more empowering instead of another site of degradation.”
‘Race-neutral’ legal challenges for voting rights, higher ed
Professor Khiara M. Bridges discusses the Supreme Court’s questioning whether to keep Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act — which prohibits discrimination in voting practices and procedures.
Is this a medical marvel or horror movie? You tell me.
Professor Khiara M. Bridges joins NPR’s It’s Been A Minute to discuss the the case of Adriana Smith’s pregnancy in which after being declared brain dead, a Georgia hospital kept her on life support without her family’s consent because of the state’s abortion laws
Brain-Dead Georgia Woman Is Taken Off Life Support After Delivering Baby
“It is not clear what exactly the law prescribes and permits in cases like this,” Khiara M. Bridges, a University of California, Berkeley law professor, told HuffPost. “In an abundance of caution, risk-averse doctors and hospital counsel will do exactly what they did in Smith’s case.”
GOP Candidate Says Number of Women on Birth Control ‘Concerning’
“This view of women and women’s roles is precisely what feminists reacted against in the mid-19th century, and then again in the 1960s and 1970s,” said Professor Khiara M. Bridges.
UC Berkeley Law Rankings Hit High Marks for Major Fields and Scholarly Impact of Standout Professors
UC Berkeley Law is the top public law school in the United States — and sixth in the world — according to Times Higher Education’s new rankings, and two recent studies of scholarly impact also place its faculty as the best among public institutions.
Gender Discrimination and Harassment Law Conference to Explore Local, National, and Global Developments
Presented by the school’s Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law, the event draws lawyers and activists in person and virtually to continue efforts to turn the revelations sparked by the #MeToo movement into systemic change.
Are California’s Death Penalty Laws Applied in Racially Discriminatory Ways, Violating the State Constitution?
Two students from UC Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic fuel an amicus brief highlighting the importance of state constitutional independence and California’s deep record of discrimination in administering capital punishment.
Is abortion settled or at risk in WA state ahead of the 2024 elections? Here’s what we found
Professor Khiara Bridges discusses abortion law in Washington state.
CAN INFORMED CONSENT SOLVE AI BIAS?
Professor Khiara Bridges’ article Race in the Machine: Racial Disparities in Health and Medical AI is reviewed.
The first over-the-counter birth control pill becomes available. Where is it sold?
“You can avoid the necessity of consulting with a physician or getting a physical examination by a healthcare provider, and you can just order it delivered to your home and so that expands access,” said Khiara M. Bridges, a professor of law at UC Berkeley who studies reproductive rights.