Carm R. Almonor , Ph.D, J.D.
Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs; Professor of African American Studies
Department of Political Science and Public Affairs
(973) 275-4687
Email
Jubilee Hall
Room 564
Carm R. Almonor, Ph.D, J.D.
Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs; Professor of African American Studies
Department of Political Science and Public Affairs
Carm Almononor is a Caribbean Africologist and legal scholar with landmark 14th Amendment published decisions and broad multidisciplinarity.
Common themes uniting Almonor’s scholarship, teaching and practice include a multicultural democracy imperative; challenges posed by systemic, intersectional racism, patriarchy, classism, and other hierarchy; and the reparative power of Africana cultural infusion within public policy discourses.
Education
-
Ph.D., Africology & African American Studies (2023) - Temple University, (Philadelphia, PA)
Dissertation title: "An Afrocentric Public Policy Inquiry: Reducing Patriarchy and Hierarchy in K-12 Education"
Committee: Molefi K. Asante (Chair), Nah Dove, Serie MacDougal III, Aaron Smith -
Master of Liberal Arts, Urban Education Policy and Cultural Anthropology (2012) - University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
-
Juris Doctor, Constitutional Law and Public Policy concentration (1994) - Boston University School of Law (Boston, MA)
- Bachelor of Arts, Africana Studies & Political Science double major, summa cum laude (1991) - Rutgers College, Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ)
Scholarship
• American Bar Association Scholar
• Eagleton Institute of Political Science Fellow
• MA Black Judges Outstanding Law Student
• Dessalines Prize for Political Analysis
• Ivan Van Sertima Book Award
• National Bar Assoc., Bd, Young Lawyers Chair
• National Bar Assoc. Leadership Award
• Natl Council of Black Studies Honor Society
• Sage Publications Award, Top PhD
• Temple U. Public Policy Lab Fellow
• Temple U. Summer Advanced Research Grant
• Rutgers African American Alumni Hall of Fame
• Service Award, HARU
• US Congress Cert. of Special Recognition
• US House Resolution of Honor
• Voice of Democracy Award
• Certificate, Columbia University, School Law Inst.
• Certificate, Seton Hall University School of Law, Pre-Legal Institute, (High Honors)
• Five Law Licenses (inactive): DC, NJ, NY, PA, & US
Selected Publications and Published Case Law
- Eye on the Budget, A Resource Guide to How The State Budget Relates to Basic Human Needs (Employment and Disability Law Sections), multiple editions (2004-7).
- Unemployment, Prisoner Reentry (contributor), and Temporary Disability NJ Pro Se Manuals Author (multiple editions, used statewide).
- You and the Law of NJ (contributor, multiple editions).
- Sanchez v. Department of Human Services, a published national landmark case in which I interviewed 50 clients, conducted legal and historical research and composed a successful legal brief invalidating New Jersey’s residency statute for interstate citizen’s benefits under the federal Equal Protection Clause and Right to Travel.
- In re Moore, a case conjoining legal and cultural research on Global Southern maternal values to repeal a prior children's benefit regulation that had required every applying parent to identify the non-custodial co-parent--a factual impossibility for my client's child who had been conceived in a past life of prostitution.
- In re Bradshaw, a case in which I devised policy arguments drawn from administering a client survey and researching African American and Latinx cultural kinship bonds to expand NJ’s statutory scope of caregiver families from those within five relational degrees to all demonstrable degrees of relationship.
Selected Conference Papers and Legistlative Reports
- (accepted) “Culturally decoding the current crisis in hierarchical public policy,” Symposium for the Molefi Kete Asante Institute. March 10, 2024
- "Lessons from the Frontline Legal Battles of Welfare Reform: The perils of advancing social symbols over social science in formulating welfare policy." Association for the Study of African American Life and History. March 2022 Conference.
- “Dual Alienation - Addressing Cultural Disengagement between Urban Middle Schools and Black, Latino and Native American Youth through Integrated Hip-Hop Arts Pedagogy” Capstone, University of Pennsylvania, May 2012. (Master’s Capstone; updated sections, 2017).
- “Brown v. Board of Education in Retrospect: Beyond Bodies - A case for educational cultural desegregation within the Schoolhouse Door,” University of Pennsylvania Race and Education Symposium, 2012.
- “Poverty’s Impact on Employment: A Proposal for State Family Leave Ins,” Statewide Anti-Poverty Conference, War Memorial, Trenton, NJ, December 5, 2000.
- “Presentation of the Real Cost of Living Study before the NJ Legislature,” Senate Labor Committee, October 2002. (one of many legislative presentations and white papers).
- Over 30 state legislative hearing white papers and presentations on diverse and consequential policy proposals devised as Director of the Statewide Employment and Unemployment Law Taskforce, and a policy principal within the NJ Anti-Poverty Network.
- SEI Corporation Black History Month Series, Feb-Mar 2021. Part one of three lectures: The Anti-Democratic and Anti-Capitalist Betrayal of Black Wall Street.
Accomplishments
- Sage Publications Award for Top Dissertation
- Asbury Park Hall of Fame, PhD Grant
- Sage Publications Asante Awd Top PhD
- American Bar Association Scholar
- Temple University Graduate Assistantship
- Eagleton Institute of Political Science Fellow
- Temple University Public Policy Lab Fellow
- MA Black Judges Outstanding Law Student
- Temple University Summer Adv. Res. Grant
- Dessalines Prize for Political Analysis
- Rutgers African American Alumni Hall of Fame
- Ivan Van Sertima Book Award
- Service Award, Caribbean HARU
- National Bar Association, Board, Young Lawyers Chair
- US Congress Cert. of Special Rec.
- National Bar Assoc. Leadership Award
- US House Resolution of Honor
- National Council of Black Studies Honor Society
- Voice of Democracy Award
- 100 Black Men of Rutgers President
- Upward Bound English Instructor
- Big Brothers/ Big Sisters Campus Leader
- Equal Education Opportunity AP Outreach Director
- Certificate, Columbia University, School Law Institute
- Certificate, Seton Hall University School of Law, Pre-Legal Institute, (High Honors)
- Five Law Licenses (on voluntary sabbatical): DC, NJ, NY, PA, & US