About

Catherine L. Crooke is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her scholarship draws together the sociology of law, work, professions, social movements, and international migration. Using ethnography and qualitative methods, she examines how lawyers and other mission-driven actors pursue social change from within legal and bureaucratic systems that often constrain their efforts. Her work highlights both the instability and the endurance of professional, organizational, and institutional norms. 

 

Catherine’s award-winning research has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Law & Society Review, Law & Social Inquiry, and Qualitative Research, and her writing has appeared in public-facing outlets such as The New York Times. Her work has been supported by numerous grants and fellowships, including the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship and the American Sociological Association’s Minority Fellowship Program.

 

Catherine holds a JD from Yale Law School, an MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from the University of Oxford, and a BA in Comparative Literature and Society from Columbia University. 

 

Catherine's interest in law as a tool for social change stems from her earlier work with the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) and other non-governmental organizations prior to pursuing a career in academia.