Gregory Parks

Gregory Parks

Professor of Law

Professor Parks' research focuses on both race and law issues as well as social science and law issues. While generally interested in the application of cognitive and social psychology to law, his work, to date, has specifically focused on what implicit (automatic/unconscious) attitudes and biases portend for the law. Professor Parks' scholarship also focuses on black fraternal networks and their relation to the law--e.g., biographies of prominent African American lawyers and judges who were/are life-long members of these organizations, the role of these organizations in African Americans' quest for social justice and civil rights, and the legal issues … Read more »

Professor Parks' research focuses on both race and law issues as well as social science and law issues. While generally interested in the application of cognitive and social psychology to law, his work, to date, has specifically focused on what implicit (automatic/unconscious) attitudes and biases portend for the law. Professor Parks' scholarship also focuses on black fraternal networks and their relation to the law--e.g., biographies of prominent African American lawyers and judges who were/are life-long members of these organizations, the role of these organizations in African Americans' quest for social justice and civil rights, and the legal issues around violent hazing within these organizations. Professor Parks has authored or edited nearly ten scholarly books, such as 12 Angry Men: True Stories of Being a Black Man in America Today (The New Press 2011), The Obamas and a (Post) Racial America? (Oxford University Press 2011), and Alpha Phi Alpha: A Legacy of Greatness, the Demands of Transcendence (University Press of Kentucky 2011). Professor Parks is currently working on a book (with Cornell Law Professor Jeffrey Rachlinski) on unconscious race bias and law, under contract with Oxford University Press. Professor Parks has also authored more than a half dozen law review articles. Prior to coming to Wake Forest, Professor Parks practiced in Trial Group in the D.C. office of McDermott Will & Emery LLP. He has also been a Visiting Fellow at Cornell Law School and a law clerk on both the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (Hon. Andre M. Davis) and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals (Hon. Anna Blackburne-Rigsby). In his spare time, Professor Parks enjoys jujitsu, Muay Thai kickboxing, cooking, and traveling.

Twitter: @BlackJDPhD


Education

  • JD, Cornell University, 2008
  • Ph D in Clinical Psychology, summa cum laude, University of Kentucky, 2004
  • MA in Clinical Psychology, magna cum laude, University of Kentucky, 2001
  • MS in Forensic Psychology, magna cum laude, CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 1999
  • BS in Psychology, cum laude, Howard University, 1996

Publications

Books

  • Fight the Power: Law and Policy Through a Hip Hop Lens (Cambridge University Press 2021).
  • A Pledge With Purpose: Black Sororities and Fraternities and the Fight for Equality (NYU Press 2020).
  • Uplifting the Race: African American Fraternities and Sororities and the Quest for Black Social Equality (NYU Press).
  • Uplifting the Race: African American Fraternities and Sororities and the Quest for Black Social Equality (NYU Press 2017).
  • Leadership and Service: The Making and Remaking of Alpha Phi Alpha, Editions I & II & III (4 Suns Press 2015).
  • Leadership and Service: The Making and Remaking of Alpha Phi Alpha, Editions I & II & III (4 Suns Press 2015).
  • Invictus: Hazing and the Future of Black Greek-Letter Organizations (4 Suns Press 2015).
  • The Wrongs of the Right: Language, Race, and the Republican Party in the Age Of Obama (NYU Press 2014).
  • Leadership and Service: The Making and Remaking of Alpha Phi Alpha, Editions I & II & III (4 Suns Press 2014).
  • African American Fraternities And Sororities: The Legacy and the Vision, 2nd Edition (University Press of Kentucky 2012).
  • The Obamas and a (Post) Racial America? (Oxford University Press 2011).
  • Black Greek-Letter Organizations, 2.0: New Directions in the Study of African American Fraternities and Sororities (University Press of Mississippi 2011).
  • 12 Angry Men: True Stories of Being a Black Man in America Today (The New Press 2011).
  • Alpha Phi Alpha: A Legacy of Greatness, the Demands of Transcendence (University Press of Kentucky 2011).
  • Brothers and Sisters: Diversity within American College Fraternities and Sororities (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press 2009).
  • Black Greek Letter Organizations in the 21st Century: Our Fight Has Just Begun (University Press of Kentucky 2008).
  • Critical Race Realism: Intersections of Psychology, Race, and Law (The New Press 2008).
  • African American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and the Vision (University Press of Kentucky 2005).

Book Chapters

  • Public Enemy's "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos", in Fight the Power: Law and Policy Through a Hip Hop Lens (2021).
  • Fraternity and Sorority Hazing: Liability and Risk Management, in Fraternities & Sororities in the Contemporary Era (2019).
  • Implicit Bias, Election '08, and the Myth of a Post-Racial America, in Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge (Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic 2012).
  • Barack, Michelle and the Complexities of a Black "Love Supreme", in The Obamas and a (Post) Racial America? (2011).
  • Propounding a Critical and Empirical Black "Greek" Scholarship, in Black Greek Letter Organizations 2.0 (2011).
  • The Complexities of Alpha's Contemporary Image Projection, in Alpha Phi Alpha: An Analysis of Organizational Identity (2011).
  • Michelle Obama and Implicit Attitudes about Black Women, in The Obamas and a (Post) Racial America? (2011).
  • New Bottle, Same Old Wine: The GOP and Race in the Age of Obama, in The Obamas and a (Post) Racial America? (2011).
  • Defining the "Alpha" Identity, in Alpha Phi Alpha: An Analysis of Organizational Identity (2011).
  • Debiasing for Membership, in Black Greek Letter Organizations 2.0 (2011).
  • "Am I Not a Man and a Brother": Analyzing the Complexities of Black "Greek" Masculine Identity, in Masculinity in the Black Imagination (Ron L. Jackson and Mark C. Hopson 2011).
  • Towards a Critical Race Realism, in Critical Race Realism: Intersections of Psychology, Race, and Law (2010).
  • Obama's Candidacy and the Collateral Consequences of the Politics of Fear, in Barack Obama and African American Empowerment (Manning Marable & Kristen Clarke 2009).
  • Advancing the Idea of a Critical BGLO Scholarship, in Black Greek Letter Organizations in the 21st Century (2008).
  • "In the Fell Clutch of Circumstance:" Pledging and the Black "Greek" Experience, in African American Fraternities and Sororities (2005).

Articles

Other

Media

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Gregory Parks
Contact Information
 336.758.2170

Worrell 3346
Expertise
  • Civil Litigation & Procedure
  • Critical Race Studies
  • Federal Courts
  • Law & Society
  • Legal Ethics & Professional Responsibility