Sarah Song

Sarah Song joined the Berkeley Law faculty in 2007. She teaches courses in political and legal philosophy, immigration and citizenship studies, and feminist theory and jurisprudence in the PhD Program in Jurisprudence & Social Policy (JSP). She has also taught First Amendment Law in the JD curriculum.

Song is the author of Justice, Gender, and the Politics of Multiculturalism (Cambridge University Press, 2007), which 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), explores the values and principles that shape and ought to shape public debate about immigration in democratic societies. The book examines the origins of the plenary power doctrine in U.S. immigration law, analyzes normative justifications for the modern state’s power over immigration, and engages with immigration policy debates.

She has also written articles on the boundary problem in democratic theory, the rights of noncitizens, and immigrant legalization programs and the rule of law. Her current research explores the grounds and limits of freedom of speech with particular attention to the challenges posed by misinformation and hate speech.

Born in South Korea, Song immigrated to the U.S. at the age of six and attended K-12 public schools in Missouri, Illinois, and New Hampshire. She received a B.A. in Social Studies from Harvard College, an M.Phil in Politics from Oxford, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale. Before 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 & Scholars (formerly the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation).

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