Profile

David Chang’s passion and commitment to righting society’s wrongs, especially with regard to racial discrimination, quickly become clear not only through his conversation and writings, but also through his actions.

Former Co-Chair of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, Professor Chang worked hard to combat some of New York City’s most heinous incidents of brutality and to push for legislative remedies through the passage of anti-hate crimes statutes.

He has written extensively on hate crimes legislation and the constitutionality of affirmative action policies, dedicating himself to the problems of achieving racial justice in a fundamentally racist society. He has also worked with the Los Angeles-based Center for Law in the Public Interest. He is now Chair of the Board of Directors of Pratt Area Community Council, an organization that serves a wide range of housing-related needs for low- and moderate-income residents of Brooklyn.

His scholarship has been recognized as outstanding. In 1992, New York Law School presented the Walter M. Jeffords Distinguished Writing Award to Professor Chang for his article, “Discriminatory Impact, Affirmative Action, and Innocent Victims: Judicial Conservatism or Conservative Justices?” and in 2001, the Otto L. Walter Distinguished Writing Award for his article, “Selling the Market-Driven Message: Commercial Television, Consumer Sovereignty, and the First Amendment.”

Professor Chang, who joined the NYLS faculty in 1983, brings his appreciation for intellectual development into the classroom.

Outside of academics, Professor Chang also has many passions, including restoration of his Victorian-style brownstone in Brooklyn, pool, golf, photography, and his dog Kenya.