Hadar Aviram

Hadar Aviram is the Thomas Miller Professor at UC Law SF, where she specializes in criminal law, criminal justice, and prisons. She holds law (1996) and criminology (2001) degrees from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a masters degree in Jewish Studies from the Graduate Theological Union (2025), and a Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and Social Policy from UC Berkeley (2005), where she studied as a Fulbright Fellow and a Regents Intern. Professor Aviram specializes in criminal justice and civil rights from a socio-legal perspective. She is the author of four books: Cheap on Crime (UC Press, 2015), The Legal Process and the Promise of Justice (Cambridge University Press, 2019), Yesterday’s Monsters: The Manson Family Cases and the Illusion of Parole (UC Press, 2020), and FESTER: Carceral Permeability and California's COVID-19 Prison Disaster (with Chad Goerzen, UC Press, 2024). She is the former President of the Western Society of Criminology and a leading voice in California and nationwide on matters involving criminal justice, correctional conditions, law and politics, and animal rights. Prof. Aviram is currently expanding her areas of expertise to Jewish Law and Jewish Studies. She is a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College and a Trustee of the Western Jewish Studies Association. Her recent research examines Biblical and Talmudic perceptions of the incarceration experience. During the 5786 Jewish year, Prof. Aviram is a rabbinic intern at Congregation Shir Ami in Castro Valley and a chaplaincy intern at the San Francisco Campus for Jewish Living. Professor Aviram’s socio-legal interests stem from her lifelong commitment to compassion for humans and nonhuman animals. She is a plant-based athlete, an amateur singer and musician, a Red Cross licensed lifeguard, and a mindfulness meditation teacher and practitioner.