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Photograph of Lydia X. Z. Brown

Lydia X. Z. Brown Adjunct Professorial Lecturer CAS | CRGC | Critical Race Gender and Culture Studies

Degrees
JD, Northeastern University School of Law

BA in Arabic, Georgetown University

Languages Spoken
English, Spanish, Arabic
Favorite Spot on Campus
The closest Ethiopian restaurant to my present location
Book Currently Reading
Black Madness :: Mad Blackness by Therí Alyce Pickens
Bio
Lydia X. Z. Brown is an advocate, organizer, attorney, strategist, and writer whose work focuses on interpersonal and state violence against disabled people at the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, faith, language, and nation. They are adjunct lecturer and core faculty in Georgetown University’s Disability Studies Program, and adjunct professorial lecturer in American University’s Department of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies. Previously, they taught as a visiting lecturer at Tufts University. Lydia founded the Fund for Community Reparations for Autistic People of Color's Interdependence, Survival, and Empowerment; co-edited All the Weight of Our Dreams: On Living Racialized Autism; and is creating Disability Justice Wisdom Tarot.


Professionally, Lydia is Policy Counsel for Privacy & Data at the Center for Democracy & Technology, focused on algorithmic discrimination and disability, as well as Director of Policy, Advocacy, & External Affairs at the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network. They serve as a commissioner on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Disability Rights, chairperson of the ABA Civil Rights & Social Justice Section’s Disability Rights Committee, and the Disability Justice Committee’s representative to the National Lawyers Guild, National Executive Committee. They also serve on the board of directors of the Alliance for Citizen Directed Supports, and on advisory boards for organizations including the Transgender Law Center, The Kelsey, Borealis Philanthropy, the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy, the Nonbinary and Intersex Recognition Project, and the Vera Institute for Justice. They regularly provide consulting, training, and workshops to nonprofit organizations, services agencies, colleges and universities, and other programs and companies interested in radical access and inclusion.


Often, their most important work has no title, job description, or funding, and probably never will.
See Also
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

Teaching

Fall 2024

  • AMST-340 Commun Activism & Regional Std: Disabled People's Protest

Spring 2025

  • AMST-340 Commun Activism & Regional Std: Autistic Activsm/Neurodiversty