Julia Chinyere Oparah

Chinyere Oparah

Professor

Full-Time Faculty
Kalmanovitz Hall 253

Expertise

  • Ethnic studies
  • Sociology of race and ethnicity
  • Black feminist theory and praxis
  • Intersectionality

Research Areas

  • Black maternal health
  • BIPOC women's and trans activism
  • Race, gender and leadership
  • Prison industrial complex abolition
  • Research justice

Appointments

  • Canada Research Chair in Social Justice, University of Toronto
  • Fellow, National Equity Project

Education

  • University of Warwick, PhD in Sociology, 1997
  • University of Warwick,  MA, Race and Ethnic Relations, 1994
  • University of Cambridge, MA, Modern and Medieval Languages, 1994
  • Cambridge University, BA, Modern and Medieval Languages, 1989

Prior Experience

  • Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, University of San Francisco
  • Provost and Dean of the Faculty, Mills College
  • Associate Provost, Mills College
  • Professor, Ethnic Studies, Mills College

Awards & Distinctions

  • Visionary of the Year Award, Maternal-Child Health Champion Awards, 2017
  • Faculty Member of the Year, Mills College of Color Awards, 2012
  • Sarlo Award for Excellence in Teaching, Mills College, 2009
  • Eugene E. Trefethen Professorship for Excellence and Innovation in Scholarship, 2008
  • Mary S. Metz Professorship for Excellence and Creativity in Teaching, 2007

Selected Publications

  • Alicia D. Bonaparte and Oparah, Julia Chinyere. 2023. Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy and Childbirth, 2nd edition. New York: Routledge. 
  • Trenka, Jane Jeong, Julia Chinyere Oparah and Sun Yung Shin. 2021. Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption, 2nd edition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 
  • Oparah, Julia Chinyere et al, 2018. Battling Over Birth: Black Women and the Crisis in Maternal Health Care. Amarillo, TX: Praeclarus Press.
  • Sudbury, Julia and Margo Okazawa-Rey, 2009 (eds). Activist Scholarship: Antiracism, Feminism and Social Change. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.
  • Sudbury, Julia, 2005 (ed). Global Lockdown: Race, Gender and the Prison-Industrial Complex. New York: Routledge.