Dr. Ellen Berrey’s sociological expertise includes law, race and racism, social movements, culture, and organizations. Her research has examined campus protest and university responses, diversity discourse and programs, affirmative action politics, U.S. university admissions, U.S. employment discrimination law, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability politics. Her work focuses on how social movements, organizations, and law can advance or thwart progressive social change. She asks: how do organizations try to address social problems, such as racial discrimination and environmental devastation? How do they navigate legal constraints and political opposition? She has a particular interest in how cultural ideals—such as diversity, fairness, and sustainability—get mobilized, institutionalized, and contested. In addition to her appointment at University of Toronto, she is an affiliated scholar of the American Bar Foundation and a faculty affiliate of DAIR (Distributed AI Research Institute). She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on the social dynamics of law, race and racism, sustainability management, and qualitative research methods. 

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