Jonathan Feingold

Jonathan Feingold’s scholarship explores the relationship between race, law, and the mind sciences. Much of his recent research has interrogated how and why various American legal regimes, including equal protection doctrine, function to reinforce and reproduce racial hierarchy. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in the California Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Utah Law Review, and Temple Law Review. Representative publications include “SFFA v. Harvard: How Affirmative Action Myths Mask White Bonus,” “Hidden in Plain Sight: a More Compelling Case for Diversity,” “Eyes Wide Open: What Social Science Can Tell Us About the Supreme Court’s Use of Social Science” (with Evelyn Carter), and “Defusing Implicit Bias” (with Karen Lorang). Jonathan also hosts #RaceClass, a monthly conversation that explores how race and racism remain powerful forces in American society.

From 2015 through 2019, Feingold served as special assistant to the vice chancellor for equity, diversity & inclusion at the University of California, Los Angeles and was a research fellow in BruinX, a research and development team within the Office of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion. He is the co-founder of illuminate diversity consulting, a private consulting firm that employs an interdisciplinary approach to foster inclusion through candid, data-driven conversation. 

Feingold received his BA from Vassar College and holds a JD from UCLA School of Law, where he graduated with a specialization in critical race studies. After law school, he joined Sidley Austin LLP as an associate in the firm’s Los Angeles office. He then clerked for the Hon. Richard C. Wesley of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Hon. Dale S. Fischer of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

In 2014, he received a California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year Award for work done in connection with Rodriguez v. Robbins, a case concerning immigrant detainees’ rights to bond hearings.