Goluboff To Chair UVA Karsh Institute Advisory Board

Dean Risa Goluboff of the University of Virginia School of Law has been named the chair of the UVA Karsh Institute of Democracy advisory board. The board made the announcement on Thursday during the institute’s fall board meeting, which took place at the inaugural Democracy360 conference.

Goluboff, who previously served as the inaugural vice chair, succeeds UVA Professor of Politics Larry K. Sabato as chair of the board, which provides guidance to the institute. The nonpartisan Karsh Institute of Democracy, led by executive director Melody C. Barnes, was established to foster participation and civil debate on issues of national importance; support and amplify research, study and discussion about the underpinnings of democracy; and engage in public outreach focused on practical impact and action.

“Risa enhances the integrity and intellect of every room, and I’m grateful she has agreed to serve as chair of the Karsh Institute’s advisory board,” Barnes said. “As we aspire to address the urgent challenges facing democracy today, we’re fortunate to have someone with her accomplished background, expertise and commitment to the rule of law help steer our work in furtherance of a vibrant future.” 

Goluboff is a renowned legal historian in addition to serving as dean of the Law School. Her scholarship and teaching focuses on American constitutional and civil rights law, and especially their historical development in the 20th century.

Goluboff is the author of the award-winning “The Lost Promise of Civil Rights” and “Vagrant Nation: Police Power, Constitutional Change, and the Making of the 1960s,” which was supported by a 2009 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Constitutional Studies and a 2012 Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies. Goluboff is co-editor (with Myriam Gilles) of “Civil Rights Stories,” and the author of numerous shorter works. She is a professor in the Corcoran Department of History, a faculty affiliate at the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies, a faculty senior fellow at the Miller Center of Public Affairs, and host of the UVA Law School podcast “Common Law.” She chaired the Deans Working Group, established to lead the University’s response to the events of Aug. 11-12, 2017. 

Goluboff is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an elected member of the American Law Institute, a distinguished lecturer for the Organization of American Historians, and a member of the Equal Justice Works board of directors. In 2023, President Joe Biden appointed her to the Permanent Committee for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise, which documents the history of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Karsh Institute of Democracy was established with a $100 million investment in June 2021 with founding support from Law School graduates Martha Lubin Karsh ’81 and Bruce Karsh ’80, who previously funded the Law School’s Karsh Center for Law and Democracy.

Since its inception, the Karsh Institute has supported or led several projects aimed at exploring current issues in democracy:

• Launched the One Small Step project to pair people from diverse backgrounds who have different—and sometimes opposing—viewpoints, and put them in conversation with one another. In addition to facilitating such conversations, the institute supports research on the longitudinal impact of these interactions on polarization and democratic attitudes.
• Supported research exploring whether national narratives erode trust in public processes; post-election surveys on voter confidence and electoral integrity in Virginia showed that such narratives play a significant role in shaping voters’ attitudes.
• Built a statewide network of local journalists to share best practices and gather annually during the Karsh Institute’s Virginia Local News Summit, hosted in partnership with Virginia Humanities.
• Partnered with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Art in Embassies to host “Democracy Day” at the National Museum of American History.

Goluboff said she is looking forward to furthering the institute’s efforts.

“Serving on the Karsh Institute board has been an honor, and I am excited to further support its mission in this new capacity,” Goluboff said. “From the very beginning, UVA has asked itself how it can contribute to the ongoing project of democracy. The Karsh Institute enables the University to ask—and answer—that question more ambitiously than ever, at a time when it is as important as it has ever been.”

Held Oct. 19-21 in partnership with The Atlantic, the institute’s Democracy360 conference brought together thought leaders, journalists, policymakers, scholars and students to imagine how to “shape a thriving democratic future,” according to the event site.