Biography: Gipson-Rankin
Professor Sonia Gibson-Rankin
School of Law
Email:sonia.rankin@law.unm.edu
Areas of Expertise
Primary Research Area
Sonia Gipson Rankin is a legal scholar and educator whose work combines her background in computer science with her passion for legal justice. She teaches in the fields of Torts, Family Law, Technology and the Law, and Introduction to Lawyering at the University of New Mexico School of Law. She is also Affiliated Faculty in the Department of Africana Studies.
Professor Gipson Rankin's scholarship bridges technology and law. Her artificial intelligence and algorithms scholarship has been in the Washington and Lee Law Review, NYU Law Review Online, Wisconsin Law Review, Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering, and the ABA SciTech Magazine. She has also published on legal pedagogy, exploring themes of race, experiential learning, and family law issues in the Connecticut Law Review, Family Law Quarterly, and the Journal of Law and Education.
In addition to her academic contributions, Professor Gipson Rankin is deeply engaged in advancing equity and justice. She is an American Bar Foundation Fellow, serves on the New Mexico Supreme Court Commission on Equity and Justice, and is a former president of the New Mexico Black Lawyers Association. She is a founding member of the Interdisciplinary Working Group on Algorithmic Justice, a collaborative effort between computer scientists, legal scholars, and social scientists to advise policymakers on AI-related issues. Through the UNM Algorithmic Justice Project, which she co-founded, she delivers lectures on topics such as AI, algorithmic justice, deepfakes, and implicit bias to diverse audiences, including judges, legal professionals, and industry leaders nationwide.
Her insights on legal, political, and tech issues have been featured in international, national, and local media outlets, including television, newspapers, and podcasts. She frequently addresses a wide range of topics, including technology, constitutional law, kinship care, criminal justice reform, inclusive leadership, and Black community empowerment.
