Kyneshawau Hurd (she/her) is a social psychologist and psychology and law scholar studying the intersections of diversity, dominance and discrimination. At the ABF, she will investigate how ideologies surrounding diversity and psychological preferences for group-based hierarchy interact with, maintain, and support legal regimes in intellectual property law, administrative law, and contract law. Her research explores how these interactions dilute the potency of anti-discrimination efforts in business and law, contributing to inequality.
Her dissertation developed a novel measure of implicit social dominance to explain the diversity principle-policy gap and its influence on policy support and decision-making in venture capital and contracts, calling for a normative shift from the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion paradigm to one she has coined Power, Belonging, and Justice (PBJ). Her work has been published in various peer-reviewed journals and her article “Diversity Entitlement: Does ‘Diversity Benefits’ Ideology Undermine Inclusion?” was featured in Northwestern Law Review.
Other ongoing research projects examine the how the emerging anti-DEI landscape and backlash to corporate DEI and race-conscious programs may influence new legal arguments and strategies for race-conscious and remedial programming, especially ones based in the 1st Amendment and fiduciary duty. Kyneshawau completed her B.A. in Psychology from Baylor University. She went on to complete her J.D. in 2022 from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and received her Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and Social Policy at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 2024. Her work has been supported by the NSF (SBE #2016661) and The Center For Society & Law.