Anna Spain Bradley: Author, Keynote Speaker, Law and Human Rights Expert

About Anna Spain Bradley

Anna Spain Bradley is an author, award-winning legal scholar, higher education leader, and globally recognized human rights expert. She holds the MacArthur Foundation Chair in International Justice and Human Rights and is a Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. With two decades of experience studying the role of law in promoting peace, dignity, and human rights globally, she has devoted over ten years to leadership roles in higher education, including as UCLA’s Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.

Anna Spain Bradley's new book, Global Racism: A Challenge for the World (Oxford University Press, October 2026), addresses racism as a pervasive form of oppression with critical implications for humanity. The book expands on her law review article Human Rights Racism (2019), which identifies racism as an overlooked violation of human rights under international law. Her first book, Human Choice in International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2021), challenges conventional views of rationality in legal decision-making by integrating insights from neuroscience. She is the co-editor of International Dispute Resolution (3rd ed., Carolina Academic Press, 2021) and has authored numerous articles and essays on the United Nations Security Council, international courts, and the peaceful resolution of disputes. She is the recipient of 2018 Gamm Justice Award and the 2014 Francis Lieber Award from the American Society of International Law for her scholarly work on the law of war.

Professor Spain Bradley has a distinguished record of international leadership and public service. In 2024, she was appointed by President Biden to the World Bank-ICSID Panel of Conciliators. In 2021, the United Nations appointed her as a Legal Expert to the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee focused on preventing racist and xenophobic discrimination. Additionally, she has served as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations Compensation Commission and provided legal counsel for countries before the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal. Her legal career began at the U.S. Department of State as an Attorney-Adviser, earning two Meritorious Honor Awards. Spain Bradley has also worked on climate change policy at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and international trade agreements at the U.S. Trade Representative's Office. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Law Institute, and the American Society of International Law, where she has held roles as Vice President and Executive Council member, and she is a founding member of Mediators Beyond Borders International. She earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.A. magna cum laude from Denison University. Based in Los Angeles, CA, Professor Spain Bradley has lived or worked on every continent except Australia and Antarctica.

Drawing on over 20 years of experience in the public sector and higher education, along with time spent in senior leadership and C-Suite roles, Spain Bradley combines research-driven insights with real-world experience to deliver innovative keynote engagements. Her speaking resonates with diverse audiences, including leadership teams, employee retreats, universities, and community groups. She leaves audiences informed and inspired.

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Coming October 1, 2026, Oxford University Press

Book cover titled 'Global Racism' by Anna Spain Bradley.

Racism, in all of its forms, harms millions of people around the world, but what exactly is it? The answer, Anna Spain Bradley argues, is older, more complex, and more global than we have ever acknowledged. In Global Racism: A Challenge for the World, Spain Bradley names global racism as an uncharted form of oppression operating on a global scale that interacts with the human ecosystem and world order. Global racism is ubiquitous and universally available, capable of existing anywhere and everywhere people are. The book creates space for compelling conversations, connecting people across continents and cultures in recognition of a shared form of oppression.

Drawing from law, history, and modern-day accounts of racism from around the world,Global Racism advances an original thesis. From the segregation of Roma children in European schools to housing discrimination against foreigners in Japan, from anti-Black racism in American policing to anti-Indigenous violence in Australia, global racism takes distinct local forms while sharing a common thread - us. Connecting its contemporary manifestations to historical practices such as slavery, colonialism, segregation, and apartheid, the book maps the ecosystem through which global racism spreads. Global racism circulates, often invisibly, by way of dangerous ideologies of superiority before manifesting as the discriminatory acts and systemic inequalities we more readily recognize today. Spanning centuries and exploring continents, the book charts the contours of global racism not simply as a local or national problem, but as a challenge for the world.

Provocative, wide-ranging, and deeply researched, Global Racism reimagines the fight against racism as a fight for our common humanity. Drawing upon two decades of experience as a legal scholar, human rights advocate, and UN legal expert, Spain Bradley warns that global racism is not just a problem for some people and some nations, but for us all. The way forward demands that nations define racism as a human rights violation under international law. It also requires replacing ideologies of superiority with dignity, embracing the power of inclusive education, and launching a coordinated framework to tackle a global threat. Global Racism calls on readers to rethink what it means to be human, defined not by what divides us but by what unites us.

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Praise for Global Racism

"This powerful, compelling book exposes racism as a global phenomenon. It thrives in countries from Albania to the USA. It targets peoples from Asians and Africans to Jews, Roma, and Ukrainians. You'll come to realize: in today's globalized world, racism imperils not only its victims, but also its perpetrators." -Dr. Jared Diamond, Author of Guns, Germs and Steel

"A must-read; in this deftly-written inquest, leading scholar of international law and racism, Anna Spain-Bradley, offers us a way to challenge racism at the global scale. This book not only defines one of the world's most entrenched social problems, it offers a legal roadmap for ending racism within the United States and beyond." -Dr. Kelly Lytle Hernández, Professor and Thomas E. Lifka Endowed Chair in History, University of California Los Angeles, Author of Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands

"Anna Spain Bradley's well-researched book tackles the question of why the numerous international treaties ratified by nations across the globe have failed to end racism and racial discrimination. Spain Bradley takes readers on a richly informative and thought-provoking journey through history, different geographies, cultures and perspectives. At the end of the expedition, she arrives at the beginning: faults in the treaties reflect faults we must address in ourselves. This is a book that is well worth the read." -Gay J. McDougall, Former Vice Chair and Member, UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Former UN Special Rapporteur on Minorities, Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence, Fordham School of Law

"Painfully relevant, gloriously human, this is truly a wake up call for our times, a sweeping and powerful work on what has passed and what may be to come, one that touches each and every person on our planet." -Philippe Sands KC, Professor of Law, University College London, Author of East West Street

Research-Driven, Experience Tested Keynote Topics

America After This

Explore who we are as a nation and discover how the changing concept of identity in America reflects the complex challenges and promise of our democracy.

Global Racism, A Challenge for the World

Drawing on her new book, Professor Spain Bradley introduces audiences to the value and necessity of understanding racism from a global perspective. Her insights delve into the historical treatment of racism under international law and its current implications for protecting human rights.

The Power of Women in Power

This keynote goes to the heart of why empowering women in leadership is essential for healthy workplaces and a thriving society. Audiences will gain insights from data-driven research about the value of women-centric leadership and the most dangerous barriers that stand in the way.

The Dignity-Driven Workplace

Explore a fresh and engaging approach to promote DEI through the universally acknowledged human right of dignity. This session offers practical guidance for leaders and organizations of all sizes on cultivating a culture of dignity that actively combats division, prevents discrimination, and fosters overall well-being.

How Inclusive Leaders Lead

This keynote equips leaders—and those aspiring to leadership—with a value-based framework for contextualizing key leadership competencies such as executive decision making, effective communication, conflict resolution, and ethics. This unique framework prepares leaders by examining these skills through an inclusion lens that considers their identity and the identities of those they seek to lead.

E Pluribus Unum: Building Unity in Diverse Societies

This keynote inspires audiences about the future of human unity rooted in the ancient principle of humanitas. It combines historical insights with contemporary data on enhancing human cooperation across different groups, addressing critical issues such as misogyny and racism.