Sarah Song

Sarah Song specializes in political and legal philosophy, citizenship and migration studies, and freedom of speech and religion. She joined the Berkeley Law faculty in 2007 and regularly teaches in the PhD Program in Jurisprudence & Social Policy (JSP) and the undergraduate Legal Studies Program for which she currently serves as Associate Dean. Her recent courses include Citizenship and Immigration, Feminist Theory, Theories of Justice, the JSP Orientation Seminar, and Teaching Learning in Higher Education. She has also taught First Amendment Law in the JD Program.

Her first book, Justice, Gender, and the Politics of Multiculturalism (Cambridge University Press, 2007), explores the challenges generated by religious and cultural diversity in democratic societies with a focus on how state accommodation of religious and cultural diversity affects gender relations within and between different groups. The book was awarded the 2008 Ralph Bunche Award by the American Political Science Association for the best book in political science that explores the phenomenon of ethnic and cultural pluralism. 

Her second book, Immigration and Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2018), examines the values and principles that shape and ought to shape public debate about immigration. The book examines the normative foundations of the modern state’s power to regulate immigration and considers their implications for immigration law and policy. The book was reviewed in Public Books and The New Yorker.

Song has written articles on the sources of civic solidarity, the boundary problem in democratic theory, the rights of noncitizens, and immigrant legalization programs and the rule of law. 

Her current research explores the value and limits of freedom of speech in democratic societies, including a paper on lies and the First Amendment and a paper on the free speech rights of noncitizens. 

Song received a BA in Social Studies from Harvard, MPhil in Political Theory from Oxford, and a PhD in Political Science from Yale. Prior to coming to Berkeley, she was Assistant Professor of Political Science and Affiliated Faculty in Philosophy and Women’s & Gender Studies at M.I.T. She has been awarded fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute for Citizens and Scholars.

From 2015 to 2020, Song served as director of Berkeley Law’s Kadish Center for Morality, Law, and Public Affairs, which together with the Political Science and Philosophy Departments sponsors the Workshop in Law, Philosophy, and Political Theory.

Education

B.A., Harvard University (1996)
M. Phil., Oxford University (1998)
Ph.D., Yale University (2003)

Sarah Song is teaching the following course in Spring 2026:

• 375P sec. 001 - Teaching Learning in Higher Education

Courses During Other Semesters

Semester	Course Num	Course Title	Teaching Evaluations
Fall 2025	209 sec. 001	JSP Orientation Seminar	View Teaching Evaluation