Who We Are
The Harvard Law School Project on Disability (HPOD) was established by Professor William Alford and Professor Michael Stein in 2004. We are a team of international scholars and advocates working to promote disability human rights. HPOD's transnational operation is headquartered in Harvard Law School. HPOD is supported in part by a grant from Foundation Open Society Institute (Zug) that enables us to advance the human rights of persons with disabilities. Our Beijing January 2007 conference was made possible by support from the Ford Foundation.
Principals
William P. Alford
Chair, Harvard Law School Project on Disability
Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law, Vice Dean for the Graduate Program and International Legal Studies, and Director of East Asian Legal Studies, Harvard Law School.
Professor Alford is a graduate of Amherst College and holds advanced degrees from the University of Cambridge, Harvard, and Yale. His publications include To Steal a Book is an Elegant Offense: Intellectual Property Law in Chinese Civilization, Raising the Bar: The Emerging Legal Profession in East Asia, and scores of articles on China. At Harvard, his teaching has focused on Chinese law and society, international law, the legal profession, and disability in a global setting. Professor Alford is an honorary professor of Renmin University, Zhejiang University, and the National Institute of Administration of the PRC, as well as an honorary fellow of the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Science. He is a member of the board of directors of Special Olympics and has for years been involved through that organization with training, health, and other disability issues in China and elsewhere. He has been called upon for counsel by international organizations, governments, universities, and charitable entities in the United States and abroad.
For further information please visit Professor Alford’s faculty webpage.
Michael Ashley Stein
Executive Director, Harvard Law School Project on Disability, and Cabell Research Professor, William & Mary School of Law.
Professor Stein is a graduate of New York University, and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and a J.D. degree from Harvard (where he was the first person with a disability to serve on the Law Review). His path-breaking scholarship has been published in many leading journals. Recent examples include Disability and the Social Contract, University of Chicago Law Review, and Disability Human Rights, California Law Review. Professor Stein has taught courses on disability law at Harvard, NYU, Stanford, and William & Mary. In addition to playing a prominent role in the drafting of the CRPD, he counsels governments on disability law and policy, represents international disability rights organizations, trains disability human rights advocates around the globe, and serves on several disability rights and research advisory boards.
For further information please read Professor Stein’s Bio and Publication List
Affiliated Harvard Law School Colleagues
Martha A. Field
Langdell Professor of Law, Harvard Law School.
Martha L. Minow
Dean, and Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor of Law, Harvard Law School.
Affiliated Harvard University Colleagues
Jacqueline Bhabha
Director, University Committee on Human Rights Studies.
Marie Trottier
University 504 & ADA Compliance Coordinator.
Research Associates
Janet E. Lord
Partner, BlueLaw International, LLP; Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Maryland School of Law.
Yuanyuan Shen
Lecturer, Department of Economics, Brandeis University.
Penelope J.S. Stein
Research Fellow, East Asian Legal Studies, Harvard Law School.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Fengming Cui
Director, China Program; Ed.D Special Education, Boston University.
Disability Human Rights Intern
Erika Butora
Disability Human Rights Externs
Tabatha George
Hezzy Smith
Graduate Students
Guo Rui
Doctoral candidate, Harvard Law School.
Wang Gangqiao
Doctoral candidate, Harvard Law School.
Associated Colleagues and Disability Centers
Peter Blanck
University Professor, Syracuse University, and Chair, Burton Blatt Institute.
Theresia Degener
Professor of Law, Administration and Organization at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences in Bochum, Germany.
Nora Ellen Groce
Leonard Cheshire Chair in Global Health and Inclusive Development, University College London.
Rune Halvorsen
Senior Researcher, NOVA Norwegian Social Research.
Osamu Nagase
Associate Professor, University of Tokyo Graduate School of Economics, and Co-Director, Research on Economy and Disability Project.
Gerard Quinn
Professor of Law and Director, Centre for Disability Law and Policy, National University of Ireland, Galway.
Michael Waterstone
Professor of Law, Loyola Los Angeles Law School.
China
Wang Liming
Dean, Law School of Renmin University of China, and Member of the Law Committee of the National People’s Congress.
Yu Xingzhong
Associate Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Lu Zhi'an
Professor of Law, Fudan University Law School.
Li Jianfei
Professor of Law, Law School of Renmin University of China.