Biography

Clara Stelow is a PhD student in political science at UCLA, where she focuses on critical political theory and legal studies. Her research examines the entanglement of liberal legal architecture and political economy, investigating how economic coercion has been legitimated through legal form across historical and contemporary contexts. She holds a BA with honors from the University of Chicago, where she studied political theory and philosophy. Prior to her PhD, she worked in immigrant and refugee services and labor rights organizing, experience that continues to ground her interest in questions of race, law, and political economy.