Veena Dubal

Veena Dubal delivered the Gruber Distinguished Lecture in Global Justice on March 2, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. at Yale Law School. Dubal is a leading scholar whose work lies at the intersection of law, technology, and labor. Her research examines how emerging economic models shape inequality and working conditions. She has held advisory and leadership roles with numerous nonprofit organizations including AI Now, the Public Rights Project, and Worker Info Exchange. Dubal is currently Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law and General Counsel of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), where she advocates nationally for faculty rights and academic freedom.

In conversation with Professor Amy Kapczynski, Dubal presented “Contemporary Challenges in Higher Education,” framing the university as a pillar of democracy under mounting pressure. She described a global moment marked by declining trust in institutions, intensified policing of speech, and increasing incursions by donors and state actors into academic governance. Drawing on the AAUP’s founding mission in 1915, Dubal argued that safeguarding academic freedom requires more than legal defense; it demands sustained collective power-building among faculty, staff, and students.

A central concern of the lecture was the escalating attack on immigrant students and scholars in U.S. higher education. Dubal contended that recent immigration enforcement actions are distinct in both scale and rationale, threatening not only individual livelihoods but also the infrastructure of American knowledge production itself. She underscored the broader implications for global justice, noting that much scientific and technological research in the United States depends on scholars trained abroad. Destabilizing their status, she warned, risks accelerating a global brain drain as other countries create expedited pathways to attract displaced talent. Drawing parallels to the post‑9/11 era, Dubal cautioned that emergency measures targeting immigrants often persist beyond their stated purpose, gradually normalizing exceptional policies.

Turning to institutional responses, Dubal called on universities to provide robust immigration counsel, refuse unnecessary over‑reporting beyond federal requirements, and resist participation in extreme surveillance practices. More fundamentally, she argued that universities must reassess visa‑dependent employment structures and take on stronger institutional obligations toward immigrant faculty and students. She described this as a collective action problem and urged tenured and otherwise secure faculty to organize in solidarity with more vulnerable colleagues.

In closing, Dubal returned to a central claim of the lecture: higher education must be actively strengthened to provide a cornerstone for democratic life. In a political climate shaped by fear and fragmentation, she argued that the way forward lies in collective organizing, legislative advocacy, and a renewed commitment to academic freedom as a global public good.

On the following day, a panel discussion held in conjunction with the Gruber Distinguished Lecture for Global Justice. It brought together scholars, students, and organizers and further examined how universities might be organized, strengthened, and defended amid growing political and economic precarity. Moderated by Amy Kapczynski, the panel featured Veena Dubal alongside Professor Robert Post,; Levin Kim,  National Chair of Higher Ed Labor United (HELU), and President of UAW 4121; and Nick Bostedt,  Hub Coordinator for the Sunrise Movement at the University of Wisconsin. The discussion addressed authoritarian attacks on higher education and explored the roles of faculty, students, organizers, and university leadership in defending and reimagining the university’s democratic mission.