Former Liman Fellow Named 2017-2018 Luce Scholar
Joshua (Josh) M. Feinzig, a Yale College Class of 2016 graduate and former Arthur Liman Public Interest Fellow, will travel to Asia next year as a Luce Scholar. Feinzig was one of 18 students from across the country to be named a 2017-2018 Luce Scholar. The recipients were chosen from 161 candidates nominated by 68 colleges and universities. The scholarship program was launched by the Henry Luce Foundation in 1974 to enhance the understanding of Asia among potential leaders in American society. The program provides stipends, language training, and individualized professional placement in Asia Unlike other American-Asian exchange programs, Luce Scholarships are intended for young leaders who have had limited experience of Asia and who might not otherwise have an opportunity in the normal course of their careers to come to know Asia.
Originally from South Florida, Feinzig studied ethics, politics and economics at Yale, where he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and won the university’s Roosevelt L. Thompson Prize for his commitment to public service. He is now a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the University of Cambridge, where he is studying for an M.Phil. in criminology.
Feinzig says he became increasingly aware of the need for criminal justice reform upon arriving in New Haven. After working with the police department and city government on various criminal justice initiatives, he co-founded Project Youth Court, an organization that takes trained high-school volunteers into federal courtrooms to serve as the lawyers and jurors in juvenile misdemeanor-offense trials. During one summer, Feinzig conducted criminal justice policy research at the White House Council of Economic Advisors. He has also done research for the Connecticut Governor’s Youth and Urban Violence Commission, and served as an appointed city commissioner on the New Haven Peace Commission, assisting in the application of restorative justice paradigms to policing oversight and youth crime.
As a Yale Law School Arthur Liman Public Interest Fellow, Feinzig worked as an investigator for the New Orleans Public Defenders as well as for a public interest law firm in St. Louis, where he independently researched the municipal court and jail systems. The results of his study on discriminatory and “debtors’ prison” practices were written up in the Newsweek and have played a role in ongoing class-action lawsuits. Through these experiences, Feinzig says, he learned of residents’ deep-seated sense of estrangement from the criminal justice and political process, confirming that policy responses must foster inclusiveness in the criminal justice system to renew trust in government at large.
Feinzig hopes to attend law school, and ultimately guide the long-term reformation of the world’s criminal justice and prison systems through legal scholarship and a direct influence in policymaking. He is an avid hiker and rock climber, and enjoys playing bluegrass music as a bass player and mandolinist.
