Griffin Brunk

Headshot of JSP student Griffin Brunk

He/him

gabrunk@berkeley.edu | LinkedIn

Doctoral Candidate in Jurisprudence and Social Policy (ABD)

Hello! Phd-side, I'm a legal historian of slavery and coerced labor, from Ratification to the modern prison system. I am most interested in illuminating the ways enslaved persons lived their lives within the contours of bondage. This includes the ways that enslaved persons influenced proximate slaveholders' decision-making, wrung concessions out of white society, and generally carved out space for independent action. My projects revolve around this inquiry, and have delved into industrial slavery, hire of enslaved persons by third parties, modern slavery, and social/criminal sanctions on slaveholders for mistreatment of enslaved persons.

While my historical work generally leans antebellum, my legal-heart lives in criminal defense. My research interests broadly orbit confidential informants, covert police technology, and confrontation. It is my intention to serve as an appellate defender before attempting to re-enter academia (it seems useful to practice before teaching crimpro or evidence).

Prior to graduate school, I was a private investigator in Washington, D.C. I have also worked as a Hillsborough Paralegal in Liverpool, as both a Refugee & Asylum researcher and the Criminal Appeals Clinic Supervisor at the Liverpool Law Clinic, and as a teacher on Chicago's South Side.

B.A., University of Chicago, 2014; M.A. University of Liverpool, 2015; J.D. University of California - Berkeley School of Law, 2021

Current Projects

  • Dissertation: Navigating by Different Rules: Lives within Atypical Forms of Slavery and Dependence
  • An Unfortunate Fossil: Problems and Solutions with the Legal Definition of Modern Slavery
  • "Finding the Right Culpability: Charting a Workable Standard for Withdrawn Consent."