Futures Initiative Faculty Advisory Board member Eduardo R.C. Capulong is a Professor of Law and Director of the Lawyering Program at the CUNY School of Law.
Professor Capulong considers it an honor to serve on the FI Faculty Advisory Board to help inform and guide the work we do. He believes that “we need more efforts like this on campus, whether it’s innovating in research and pedagogy, cross-campus collaboration, or student leadership development.” His academic work, which includes a focus on experiential learning and professional identity, aligns well with the Futures Initiative’s mission to advance equity and innovation in higher education. He looks forward to bringing this work to bear on FI projects that support “pedagogical innovation, a multi- and inter-disciplinary approaches, and student leadership.”
His current projects involve the development of experiential or clinical legal education here and abroad. He is also involved in exploring the meaning of professional identity in the legal profession and how “we might be more explicit and intentional in how we infuse the court with certain values, or at least reinforce the values it purports to espouse—such as the commitment to democracy, free speech, and human rights.”
When asked about the things that he enjoys and engages with outside his work that help to keep him motivated, Professor Capulong acknowledged that “this is becoming increasingly difficult, of course, given the deepening, inter-lapping crises we find ourselves in—war, poverty, climate, racism. Aside from the inspiration I find in people’s courage to confront them—this generation of students and young folks, especially—I take pleasure in small, everyday interactions and happenstances—and art, music, comedy, the outdoors, that kind of thing.”
Before joining the CUNY Law School faculty, Professor Capulong taught at the University of Montana, NYU, and Stanford. He also has been a visiting professor at the University of the Philippines, Universidad de Granada Facultad de Derecho, and China Youth University of Political Studies. He received his undergraduate degree in political science and journalism from NYU and a law degree from CUNY as a Patricia Roberts Harris and Davis-Putter Fellow.
Prior to teaching, Professor Capulong worked for various nonprofits, including the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant Rights, Community Service Society, Center for Constitutional Rights, Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, and Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association. He was the former Karpatkin Fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union and Pro Se Law Clerk at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Professor Capulong is also a past co-chair of the American Association of Law Schools Section on Clinical Legal Education, and has served on the boards of the Montana ACLU, Society of American Law Teachers, National Lawyers Guild (San Francisco), International Endowment for Democracy, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, and Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
