Judith Blau

Judith Blau (born April 27, 1942) is an American sociologist and professor emerita of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Most of her academic career has been devoted to teaching and writing about human rights, and she retired to Wellfleet, Massachusetts, where she continues to teach.

Judith was awarded a BA from the University of Chicago in 1964 and a MA, also from Chicago, in 1967, and a PhD in 1972, from Northwestern University. Blau taught at Baruch College as an assistant professor from 1973 to 1976, held a post-doctoral fellowship at Albert Einstein College of Medicine (1976-1978), taught at the State University of New York at Albany (1978-1982), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1982-2013) where she founded and chaired the Social and Economic Justice minor within the Sociology department. She founded and directed the Human Rights Center of Chapel Hill and Carrboro in 2009, which was an NGO that advocated for the rights of refugees and migrants. Her husband, Peter Michael Blau taught in the same department, as emeritus professor, until his death March 12, 2002. She has two daughters, Reva Blau and Pamela Blau.