Michael Yarbrough

Michael W. Yarbrough is an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY), where his teaching focuses on the Law & Society major. His research examines how law shapes the ways we understand interpersonal relationships, most especially the relationship of marriage. He is currently writing a book on South Africa, the only country in the world that has recently expanded marriage laws for two forms of marriage: same-sex marriages, and marriages under indigenous systems of African law. This project has received multiple awards, including the 2019 Law & Society Association Article Prize. Yarbrough also recently published the After Marriage Equality series, three co-edited volumes that examine how queer families, activism, and political priorities are changing after same-sex marriage. Yarbrough places a high priority on working with undergraduates, and he has received awards from John Jay for both teaching and service to students. He is currently helping develop a large project in which Law & Society students at John Jay will research how law shapes inequality in their own communities throughout the NYC region. In 2019, Yarbrough was recognized by the CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences as one of CUNY’s outstanding Assistant Professors. He holds a BA in sociology from the University of Chicago and a JD and a PhD in sociology from Yale.

For more about Prof. Yarbrough’s work, please visit his website at michaelyarbrough.net.