In the Classroom and Beyond: Sonu Bedi

Sonu Bedi, associate professor of government, reflects on his research and teaching.

My current project is on the scope of justice. Scholars often debate the principles of justice, e.g., is redistribution fair? Is race-based affirmative action just? Are paternalistic laws justifiable? In all these cases, we assume that the only kind of action worthy of interrogation is action by state or state actors. The question of scope is rarely discussed.

The project seeks to consider ways in which non-state actors, including private employers, associations, religious groups, and even individuals may violate principles of justice.

I recently published a book titled Beyond Race, Sex, and Sexual Orientation: Legal Equality without Identity (Cambridge University Press, 2013). Speaking directly to the teacher-scholar ethos, my spring 2012 seminar, titled “Race, Law, and Identity,” asked students to read chapters from the book. This both allowed students to see how my scholarly work informs the current state of the field and gave me crucial feedback as I finished the book.

***

My adviser and mentor in grad school, Bruce Ackerman, the Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale, constantly pushed me to argue for big ideas, and not to be afraid to challenge conventional wisdom.

My route to academia was not a straightforward one. As far back as I remember, I always wanted to be a lawyer—a trial lawyer, in fact. After graduating from law school and working in a law firm, I realized that being a lawyer just wasn’t for me. I knew I had an academic interest in the law, but wanted to supplement that with further study in political theory.