ALEXANDER ZHANG, assistant professor at the University of Texas School of Law, is an American writer, historian, and theorist of law and culture.

His research excavates new histories of lawmaking and political participation, develops theories of legal interpretation that seek to account for America’s multitude of political processes and peoples, and highlights issues of inequality and access to justice. His longform work includes articles in the Yale Law Journal on the sociopolitical dimensions of statutory interpretation, the NYU Law Review on the history of legislatures interpreting laws themselves, and the Duke Law Journal on fair notice in statutory interpretation.

At the University of Texas School of Law, Zhang teaches courses on legislation and statutory interpretation, contracts, and race and the law. Before joining the faculty, he served as a law clerk for Chief Judge David J. Barron of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston. His legal experience also includes work with the Consumer Rights and Economic Justice team of Public Counsel, the Consumer Protection section of the California Attorney General’s Office, and the Complex and Affirmative Litigation team of the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.

Zhang received a J.D. from Yale Law School, where his scholarship received the Thomas I. Emerson Prize twice for best paper on legislation, the Joseph Parker Prize for best paper on legal history, the Colby Townsend Memorial Prize for best paper by a second-year student, and the Barry S. Cohen Prize for best paper on literature and the law. He received an M.Phil. in History and a four-year B.A.-M.A. in American Studies magna cum laude with Exceptional Distinction from Yale University, where he was awarded the university-wide John Addison Porter prize for outstanding thesis or dissertation in any field. He is a Ph.D. candidate in History at Yale.