Dr. Matthew Clair

Biography

Matthew Clair is an Assistant Professor of Sociology, with a courtesy appointment in Law at Stanford University. His scholarship broadly examines the cultural meanings and interactions that reflect, reproduce, and challenge the dimensions of social inequality and state violence. His research focuses on courts and the legal profession, leveraging case studies from courts to sharpen theoretical understandings of the state and institutional inequality while envisioning marginalized groups. Matthew is the author of the award-winning book 'Privilege Punishment: Race, Class, and the Matter of Criminal Court' published by Princeton University Press. He has written for various academic and popular outlets, including Social Forces, Socio-Economic Review, and The Boston Review. Matthew's work has received multiple awards from the American Sociological Association and the American Society of Criminology. In 2022, he was honored with the Ruth Shonle Cavan Young Scholar Award and the Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching, Stanford University’s highest teaching accolade. Currently, he is involved in several research projects, including a longitudinal interview study of prospective law school students and the Court Listening Project, which evaluates court systems in the Bay Area.

Research Interests