Michelle Fine

The Graduate Center, CUNY

Distinguished Professor

Michelle Fine is a Distinguished Professor of Critical Psychology, Women's Studies, Social Welfare, American Studies and Urban Education at the Graduate Center, CUNY and founding faculty member of The Public Science Project, a university-community research space designed in collaboration with movements for racial and educational justice. In addition, I am humbled to be recognized as Professor Extraordinarius at the University of South Africa (UNISA) Psychology department, 2021 – 2024. As a scholar, expert witness in litigation, a teacher and an educational activist, my work centers theoretically and epistemically on questions of justice and dignity, privilege and oppression, and how solidarities emerge.I taught at the University of Pennsylvania from 1981 – 1991, and then came to the Graduate Center, CUNY. I have served as an expert witness in a range of educational, racial and gender justice class action lawsuits including girls suing for access to Central High School in Philadelphia and The Citadel in South Carolina, students of color suing for racial equity in Wedowee Alabama, youth fighting for equitable financing and facilities in Williams v. State of California, and most recently a finance inequity lawsuit for the children of Baltimore. With a rich international network of collaborators and activist scholar colleagues, I have spent time teaching and researching at the Institute for Maori Studies in Auckland, New Zealand; the Centre for Narrative Research at the University of East London; University of Witswatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa; Universidad Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil, and at the Euroclio Institute in Nicosia Cypress. Author or co-author/editor or co-editor of more than 20 books and policy briefs