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The Harvard Law Review elected Sophia M. Hunt ’19 as its 138th president last Saturday. Hunt will be the second Black woman to hold the position.
Hunt emphasized the Law Review’s diversity of leadership and commitment to democratic values after the publication weathered criticism for excluding a pro-Palestinian article from its blog last year.
In a Saturday interview with The Crimson, Hunt, who joined the Law Review last summer, praised the publication for being “very democratic.”
“I think we really have the opportunity to shed light on legal issues that are not necessarily talked about,” Hunt said. “That’s something that’s really special that we do in our pages.”
Following the Law Review’s controversial exclusion of a pro-Palestinian article from its blog last December, Hunt emphasized the diversity of backgrounds of HLR editorship and their commitment to publishing pieces that “we might not all necessarily agree with.”
“I think that any community has different perspectives on different issues,” Hunt said. “I really respect the critical and thoughtful engagement and reflection of all of my editors and being able to tackle thorny issues.”
“Democratic values and input is something that’s core to the Harvard Law Review,” she added. “We’re working to just make sure that we can live and uphold those values.”
Hunt said she hopes HLR will leverage the experiences of its body of writers “to talk about legal issues” that are “often underrepresented in our pages and in legal academia.”
“My vision for the Law Review is one that I share with my body and I’m just eager and excited to dig in,” she said.
“I think that it’s a very interesting moment for scholarship in higher education,” Hunt said. “I really firmly believe in the role that legal academia, in particular, can play.”
During her time at HLS, Hunt has also engaged in legal service work with the Harvard Defenders and Prison Legal Assistance Project.
Hunt gained admission to Harvard Law School through the Junior Deferral Program, which requires admits to delay their matriculation to HLS by at least two years. She spent three years obtaining a Masters in Sociology and pursuing a PhD at Stanford, which she is currently taking a leave of absence from.
At the College, Hunt was a resident of Winthrop House, studied History and Literature, and participated in the Institute of Politics’ Fellows and Study Groups program, where she met mentors like Symone Sanders-Townsend and Brittany Packnett Cunningham.
Hunt said she was “truly humbled to be in such an impressive community of individuals” and praised her presidential predecessors at the Law Review.
“I am the beneficiary of so much care, consideration, and thought of my fellow editors,” she said.
—Staff writer S. Mac Healey can be reached at mac.healey@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @MacHealey.
—Staff writer Saketh Sundar can be reached at saketh.sundar@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @saketh_sundar.
