Dr Eddie Bruce-Jones
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Overview
Overview
Biography
Dr Eddie Bruce-Jones joined the faculty at Birkbeck in September 2010. He is the Executive Dean (Interim) of the School of Law. He has served as Deputy Dean of the School of Law (2018-2020), Head of the Department of Law (2020-2022), Acting Dean of the School of Law (Autumn 2018), Assistant Dean for Recruitment and Internationalisation (2015–2018), Programme Director for the LLM Qualifying Law Degree (2013–2018) and as a member of the college Board of Governors (2015–2018). Prior to joining Birkbeck, Dr Bruce-Jones was Visiting Lecturer in Public International Law at King’s College London School of Law and an associate at the city law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, LLP in London, where in addition to corporate practice, he handled several asylum and public international law pro bono matters.
In 2020, Dr Bruce-Jones was the William and Patricia Kleh Visiting Professor at Boston University School of Law. He is currently Principal Investigator on an AHRC-funded research grant titled 'Towards an Integrated Colonial Archive: Humanities, Law and British Indentureship.' He is the recipient of a 2018 Wellcome Trust ISSF grant to support a symposium in the area of the medical humanities, on race, mental health and state violence. In 2017 and 2018, he was a short-stay visiting fellow at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt, Germany. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law (Bloomsbury) and an advisory board member of the London Journal of Critical Thought, the International Academic Forum and the Centre for Intersectional Justice.
Dr Bruce-Jones serves on the Boards of Directors of the Institute for Race Relations and Rainbow Migration, and the Advisory Board of the Centre for Intersectional Justice (Berlin). He is a comparative law specialist for the Independent Commission on the Death of Oury Jalloh (on police brutality and due process) in Germany. He has taught general education and writing courses in prisons in Boston and New York and has worked on prison reform issues in various capacities.
Dr Bruce-Jones is Associate Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple and Member of the New York State Bar.
Highlights
2021. Bhatia, Monish and Eddie Bruce-Jones. Race, Mental Health and State Violence: A Special Issue of Race & Class. 62(3) Race & Class.
[Press Release]2021. Bruce-Jones, E. “Deutsche Polizei an der Kreuzung: Intersektionalität von Rasse, Geschlecht, Migrationsstatus und psychischer Gesundheit” in Vanessa Thompson and Mike Laufenberg (Eds.), Sicherheit: Rassismuskritische und feministische Debatten. Verlag Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster. [Publisher's website]
2020. "Race and Inequality - the importance of the single case," Law & Society Institute Podcast, Humboldt-University in Berlin, Faculty of Law. [Listen]
Office hours
By appointment
Qualifications
- Attorney, New York Bar
- DPhil, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
- LLM, King's College London
- JD, Columbia University
- MA, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
- AB, Harvard University
Web profiles
Administrative responsibilities
- Executive Dean, School of Law
- Governing Board, University of London Refugee Law Clinic
Visiting posts
- William and Patricia Kleh Visiting Professor of International Law, Boston University, 08-2020 to 12-2020
- Faculty, Central European University, Summer University, 07-2021
- Guest Lecturer, DePaul College of Law/ Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Summer Programme, 08-2017 to 08-2019
- Visiting Scholar (Short Term), Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory (formerly European Legal History), 04-2017 to 07-2018
- Visiting Lecturer in Public International Law, King's College London, 09-2009 to 08-2012
Professional activities
Editorial Board, Journal of Asylum, Immigration and Nationality Law
Advisory Board, Journal for the Study of Indentureship and its Legacies
Advisory Board, 'Imagining Black Europe' book series, Peter Lang
Advisory Board, International Academic Forum
Grant Referee, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Grant Referee, Swiss National Science Foundation
Grant Referee, Icelandic Research Fund
Grant Referee, National University of Ireland
Grant Reviewer, Social Sciences Discovery Advisory Group, Wellcome Trust
Professional memberships
Fellow, Higher Education Academy
Honours and awards
- Academic Fellow, The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, July 2012
- Half Honours and Colours Award for Teaching & Support, Birkbeck Students Union, August 2017
- Atlantik Brücke German American Young Leader, Atlantik Brücke, e.V., July 2011
ORCID
0000-0001-6653-1750 -
Research
Research
Research interests
- Law and the Humanities
- Race and the Law
- Immigration and Asylum
Research overview
Dr Eddie Bruce-Jones’ is the author of Race in the Shadow of Law: State Violence in Contemporary Europe, a socio-legal study of law and anti-racism work in Europe, with a focus on the German context. It analyses the tension between conventional legal discourse and experiential modes of describing state violence, anti-discrimination legislation and immigration policies to arrive at a deeper understanding of the ways that laws affect the lives of Black Germans. He remains active in research and policy work on deaths in custody and state violence in Europe.
Dr Bruce-Jones is Principal Investigator of an Arts and Humanities Research Council grant, Towards an Integrated Colonial Archive: Humanities, Law and British Indentureship. He is currently writing his second monograph, a methodologically disruptive legal history of the indenture of South Asians to Jamaica during the British colonial era. The work interrogates archival records and examines the challenges researchers face as they relay the stories of indenture while critically reading, writing and viewing through the prism of contemporary colonial legal and administrative structures. This research has been supported by a visiting fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt.
Bruce-Jones is co-authoring a law textbook, Race and Law in Europe: Texts, Cases and Materials, dedicated to examining race in Europe (with C. Barskanmaz, A. Kocze and M. Möschel). This comparative and international law project analyses cases and controversies within both national and European jurisdictional frameworks. It aims to explore legal, social and political trends that are apparent only when one looks well beyond European Union and Council of Europe frameworks and examines national court judgements and the corresponding local social and political contexts.
Methodologically, he draws from the trans/ multi-disciplinary approaches of law and anthropology, socio-legal studies, law and literature, critical race theory and queer theory.
Research Centres and Institutes
- member, Centre for Law and the Humanities
- member, Centre for the Critical Study of European Law
- member, Birkbeck Institute for Gender and Sexuality Studies
- member, Centre for Research on Race and Law
- Leadership Council, Systemic Racism Working Group, Berkeley Center for Comparative Equality and Anti-discrimination Law
- Advisory Board of National Racism and Discrimination Monitor, Deutsches Zentrum für Integrations- und Migrationsforschung
- Member, Dark Laboratory, Cornell University
Research clusters and groups
- Human Rights research cluster
- Law and Humanities research cluster
- Policy, Practice and Activism research cluster
- Race, Gender and Culture research cluster
Research projects
Towards an Integrated Colonial Archive: Humanities, Law and British Indentureship.
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
I welcome PhD applications from students interested in the following topics:
- human rights and critique
- law and anthropology
- slavery and indentured labour
- critical approaches to equality law
- comparative and public international law
- asylum and migration law
- race, law and literature
- race, ethnicity and religion
- critical approaches to legal history
- race and policing
- gender, gender identity and sexuality
If you are interested in pursuing research in any of these areas, you should first read our advice on how to apply for MPhil/PhD research before submitting an application.Current doctoral researchers
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ADIMAYA KENI
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JAY JENNIFER ROSE KIDD-MORTON
Doctoral alumni since 2013-14
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LUIZ VALLE JUNIOR
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PHILIPP KENDER
Teaching
Teaching modules
- Equality and Diversity (LADD002H5)
- Public International Law and the Use of Force (LADD058H6)
- Constitutional Law in Practice: Regional Perspectives (LADD067S7)
- Equality and the Law (LALA096S7)
- Critical Methods in Law & Society Research (LALW065S7)
- Transformative Lawyering (LALW083H6)
- European Union Law (GDL) (LALW118H6)
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Publications
Publications
Article
- Bhatia, Monish and Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2021) Time, torture and Manus island: an interview with Behrouz Boochani and Omid Tofigian. Race & Class 62 (3), pp. 77-87. ISSN 0306-3968.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2021) Mental health and death in custody: The Angiolini Review. Race & Class 62 (3), pp. 7-17. ISSN 0306-3968.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2017) A body does not just combust: racism and the law in Germany. World Policy Journal 34 (2), pp. 31-35. ISSN 0740-2775.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2015) Death zones, comfort zones: queering the refugee question. International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 22 (1), pp. 101-127. ISSN 1385-4879.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2015) German policing at the intersection: race, gender, migrant status and mental health. Race & Class 56 (3), pp. 36-49. ISSN 0306-3968.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2012) Germany's Stephen Lawrence. Race & Class 54 (2), pp. 82-87. ISSN 0306-3968.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2009) Anthropology as critical legal intervention: instrumentalization, co-construction and critical reformulation in the relationship between anthropology and international Law. UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs 14 (2), pp. 331-366. ISSN 1089-2605.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2008) Race, space, and the nation-state: racial recognition and the prospects for substantive equality under anti-discrimination law in France and Germany. Columbia Human Rights Law Review 39 (2), pp. 423-427. ISSN 0090-7944.
- Skrodzka, M. and Chia, J. and Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2008) Next step forward: the development of clinical legal education in Poland through a clinical pilot program in Białystok. Columbia Journal of East European Law 2 (1), pp. 56-93. ISSN 1537-7342.
Book
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2016) Race in the shadow of law: state violence in contemporary Europe. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138649361.
Book Review
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2021) Cengiz Barskanmaz, Recht und Rassismus: Das menschenrechtliche Verbot der Diskriminierung aufgrund der Rasse [Law and Racism: The Human Rights Prohibition of Racial Discrimination].
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2021) Decarcerating Disability: deinstitutionalization and prison abolition (2020), by Lait Ben-Mosche..
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2021) The queer demands of postcoloniality (Review of Rahul Rao's Out of Time).
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2020) Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Stories of Social Upheaval, by Saidiya Hartman.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2017) Legal Fictions: Constituting Race, Composing Literature, by Karla F. C. Holloway.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2016) Book Reviews: Minority Internal Migration in Europe.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2015) Contemporary Issues in Refugee Law, edited by Satvinder Singh Juss and Colin Harvey.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2006) Klaus Dieter Beiter, The Protection of the Right to Education by International Law.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2005) Axel Buchwald, Der Fall Tadić vor dem Internationalen Jugoslawientribunal im Lichte der Entscheidung der Berufungskammer vom 2. Oktober 1995.
Book Section
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2021) Deutsche Polizei an der Kreuzung: Intersektionalität von Rasse, Geschlecht, Migrationsstatus und psychischer Gesundheit. In: Laufenberg, M. and Thompson, V.E. (eds.) Sicherheit: Rassismuskritische und feministische Debatten. Münster, Germany: Verlag Westfälisches Dampfboot. pp. 56-74. ISBN 9783896912497.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2021) Black lives and the state of distraction. In: Duff, K. (ed.) Abolishing the Police. Dog Section Press. (In Press)
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2021) Death zones, comfort zones: queering the refugee question. In: Raj, S. and Dunne, P. (eds.) The Queer Outside in Law: Recognising LGBTIQ People in the United Kingdom. Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies. Palgrave. pp. 49-78. ISBN 9783030488291.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2018) Refugee law in crisis: decolonizing the architecture of violence. In: Bosworth, M. and Parmar, A. and Vázquez, Y. (eds.) Race, Criminal Justice, and Migration Control: Enforcing the Boundaries of Belonging. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 176-193. ISBN 9780198814887.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2017) Archiving racial violence: some reflections from the UK’s Institute of Race Relations. In: Karakayali, J. and Kahveci, Ç. and Liebscher, D. and Melchers, C. (eds.) Den NSU-Komplex analysieren: Aktuelle Perspektiven aus der Wissenschaft. Bielefeld, Germany: transcript Verlag. pp. 163-178. ISBN 9783837637090.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2015) Preface. In: The Most Unsatisfied Town. Witnessed. Münster, Germany: Edition Assemblage. pp. 1-3. ISBN 9783942885768.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2013) Institutionalised racism in Germany: law enforcement. In: Pfohman, S. and Feke, L. (eds.) Recycling hatred: racism(s) in Europe today. a dialogue between academics, equality experts and civil society activists. Brussels, Belgium: European Network Against Racism. pp. 96-106. ISBN 9782960130805.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2007) Surviving September 11th or snapshots in the dark? A critical consideration of two professional photographs as portraits of denial. In: Dallmann, A. and Isensee, R. and Kneis, P. (eds.) Picturing America: Trauma, Realism, Politics and Identity in American Visual Culture. American Studies Conference Series. Hamburg, Germany: Peter Lang. pp. 13-20. ISBN 9783631549407.
Editorial
- Bhatia, Monish and Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2021) Introduction. Race & Class 62 (3), pp. 3-6. Sage. ISSN 0306 3968.
Exhibition
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie and Foster, K. Timeline Installation, We will walk: art and resistance in the American south.
Other
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2021) The United Kingdom on race: a warning for Europe. Verfassungsblog: Verfassungsblog.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2020) Black lives and German exceptionalism. Verfassungsblog.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2017) Baldwin and the American Banquet. London, UK: Consented Magazine.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2017) Police brutality and racism in Germany. African American Intellectual History Society.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2016) Citizens of nowhere? Fear, race, migration and the dangers of Formalism. Junge Wissenschaft im Öffentlichen Recht Blog.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie and El-Enany, Nadine and Benson, J. and Bastani, A. and Okolosie, L. (2016) Should we leave or remain in the EU? Roundtable Discussion - Part 1. Media Diversified.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2015) Racism, policing and the quality of our lives. The Huffington Post.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2015) Black Lives and the state of distraction. Los Angeles, U.S.: The Los Angeles Review of Books.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2015) Deterrence unto death: running fast into a neighbour's knife. Critical Legal Thinking.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2014) Cuba and the Garden State: Assata, Abolition and the problem of pardon. Critical Legal Thinking.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie Paoli Itaborahy, Lucas and Zhu, Jingshu, eds. (2013) Refugee context considered. pp. 10-11. International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans and Intersex Association.
- Bruce-Jones, Eddie (2005) Block 25: the tent. Ravensbrück, Germany: Ravensbrück Foundation.
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Business and community
Business and community
Outreach
Board of Trustees, Institute of Race Relations (UK)
Board of Trustees, Rainbow Migration (formerly UKLGIG)
Advisory Board, Centre for Intersectional Justice (Germany)
Member, International Independent Commission on the Death of Oury Jalloh (Germany)