Fellows

I teach at the law schools at Yale and Georgetown Universities; long-time director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, a public interest legal project, in Atlanta; represented people facing the death penalty at trials and on appeals in the southern states for more than 40 years; and co-author, with James Kwak, of The Fear of Too Much Justice: Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts (2023).

I grew up on a farm in central Kentucky and have returned there after being away for over 40 years.

I received my Bachelor of Arts from the University of Kentucky in 1971 and my Juris Doctor from University of Kentucky College of Law in 1974.

James Bundy (he/him/his) has served as Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean of David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and Artistic Director of Yale Repertory Theatre since 2002. He teaches in the Acting and Directing programs at the Geffen School and in the Theater Studies program in Yale College. During his tenure, Yale Rep has produced 39 world premieres; ten shows have been honored by the Connecticut Critics Circle as Best Production of the year; two have been Pulitzer Prize finalists.

Through WILLPOWER!, an educational program initiated in 2004, Yale Rep has provided low-cost theater tickets and classroom visits to thousands of middle and high school students from Greater New Haven. The Binger Center for New Theatre, founded in 2008, has enabled Yale Rep to commission more than fifty artists to create new work. James has directed productions at the Mark Taper Forum, Theater for a New Audience, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Great Lakes Theater Festival, The Acting Company, California Shakespeare Festival, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and The Juilliard School Drama Division. He served from 2007-13 on the board of directors of Theatre Communications Group. Previously, he worked as Associate Producing Director of The Acting Company, Managing Director of Cornerstone Theater Company, and Artistic Director of Great Lakes Theater in Cleveland, Ohio. James is a graduate of Harvard College and David Geffen School of Drama; he also trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

I have almost 35 years of corporate experience including McKinsey & Company, GE, PepsiCo, Dean Foods, and S&P Global. I joined Yale in 2016 as the inaugural Senior Vice President for Operations. My wife April and I split time between our home in New Canaan and our apartment in New Haven. We have three children: Ryan is a veterinarian practicing in Norwalk, Kate is a third year at the Yale Medical School, and Carey is a social worker in Boston. I grew up in Morris Cove neighborhood of New Haven and attended Notre Dame High School in West Haven.

For most of my career, I have been a journalist reporting and writing about legal affairs, as a staff writer of The New Yorker, a member of the editorial board of The New York Times, and author of six books. I came to Yale as a journalist on the faculty of Yale Law School to launch and lead Legal Affairs magazine, the first general-interest magazine about the law and lawyers. For the past 26 years, I have also taught at Yale, at the law school, in the English and Political Science Departments, and as Davenport's writing tutor. Early in my journalism career, I wrote a profile about a tap dancer named Sandman Sims whose motto was, "See one, do one, pass it on." That's my aim as a teacher and a tutor and as a Davenport fellow. I get inspiration for that commitment from wide sources -- family, friendship, biking, reading, Long Island Sound, past and current colleagues, and many Yale students.

I received my Bachelor of Arts at Harvard College in 1972 and my JD from Harvard Law School in 1976.