Katherine Perez

Katherine was raised in Los Angeles, California, the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants. As a sibling to someone with intellectual and other developmental disabilities, Katherine’s sense of disability justice formed at a young age. Katherine identifies as disabled, having grown up with psychiatric disabilities from a young age. The first in her immediate family to graduate college, Katherine went on to receive her law degree from UCLA School of Law in 2013. Katherine is a member of the California Bar and currently a Visiting Professor of Law at Loyola Law School. She is the inaugural director of The Coelho Center for Disability Law, Policy and Innovation, which launched in 2018. Katherine is a PhD candidate in Disability Studies in the Department of Disability and Human Development. Her dissertation is a Critical Race and Disability Studies (Dis/Crit) Legal analysis of Supreme Court cases during the Burger Court tenure (1969-1986) that relate to the criminal legal system and mental disability (i.e. competence to stand trial, insanity as a defense, and exemptions to the death penalty). Katherine also does research and policy work at the intersection of immigration and disability, applying a Dis/Crit Legal analysis.

Why did you choose DHD at UIC?
Katherine chose DHD at UIC because it holds the only PhD program in Disability Studies in the nation and she wanted to learn critical disability analysis in order to apply it to the law.

What do you want to do with a DHD degree?
Katherine has been on a long path to receive her doctoral degree. Once she is Dr. Pérez, Katherine hopes to continue her policy and academic work, possibly in a tenure track position at a law school.

Selected Presentations
Perez, K.A. (April 2019). A Critical Race and Disability Studies Approach to Immigration and Disability Law, Midwest Sociology Society Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.

Perez, K.A., Ives-Rublee, M., Cockley, R., & Thompson, V. (August, 2017). How Disability Can Save the Progressive Movement, Netroots Nation Conference, Atlanta, GA.

Selected Publications
Perez, K. (2019). A Critical Race and Disability Legal Studies Approach to Immigration Law and Policy. UCLA Law Review, available at https://www.uclalawreview.org/a-critical-race-and-disability-legal-studies-approach-to-immigration-law-and-policy/.

Perez, K.A., Grau, K., Godfrey, G., & Mahoney, L. (September 30, 2015) Justice-Involved Youth with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: A Call to Action for the Juvenile Justice Community [webinar] In NCCJD White Paper Series, Retrieved from: http://www.thearc.org/NCCJD/training/webinars/archive

Awards and Honors
Honors and Awards American Association of People with Disabilities Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award 2017
UIC Graduate Program University Fellowship 2013-2017
Drazen Award for work and scholarship on Race/Disability 2016
University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Diversity Fellowship 2016

Education
BA Psychology and Spanish, Chapman University, 2006 JD, UCLA School of Law, 2013