IRVINE, Calif. (Sept. 2, 2025) — University of California, Irvine School of Law Professor Ari Waldman has been awarded the 2025 Dukeminier Awards’ Ezekiel Webber Prize by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law for his article, “Gender Data in the Automated Administrative State,” 123 Colum. L. Rev. 2249 (2023). Dukeminier Awards are given to four faculty and one student for law review articles that embody the best of this year’s sexual orientation and gender identity legal scholarship. Winning articles are republished in a volume of the Dukeminier Awards Journal. Prof. Waldman was previously honored with a 2024 Dukeminier Award, receiving the M.V. Lee Badgett Prize for his article, “Disorderly Content,” 97 Wash. L. Rev. 907 (2022). Professor Waldman is one of only 11 scholars — including UC Irvine School of Law Chancellor’s Professor Courtney Cahill — to win the Dukeminier Award more than once. The Williams Institute will honor the award winners at a virtual event on Sept. 17, 2025.
Prof. Waldman’s article appears in Volume 24 of the Dukeminier Awards Journal and was originally published in the Columbia Law Review. The article shows how the law promotes automation of government in a way that binarizes gender data and erases transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people. The law mandates and encourages automated governance that prioritizes efficiency over inclusivity, causing dignitary, expressive, and practical harms. The article concludes with principles for reforming the approach to sex and gender data, suggesting that gender data should only be used when it is necessary to lift up gender-nonconforming populations.
“It is an incredible honor to be recognized by the Williams Institute and the Dukeminier Awards,” said Prof. Waldman. “I stand alongside outstanding scholars, all of whom are working on issues that are pressing today, especially given the federal government’s constant attacks on trans and gender-divergent people.”
It is an incredible honor to be recognized by the Williams Institute and the Dukeminier Awards. I stand alongside outstanding scholars, all of whom are working on issues that are pressing today, especially given the federal government’s constant attacks on trans and gender-divergent people.
Ari Waldman
Professor of Law
Prof. Waldman is a socio-legal scholar of technology and society at UC Irvine School of Law. His scholarship focuses on privacy, digital governance and queer civil rights. He is a co-winner of the 2024 Law and Society Association Article Prize and received a 2024 Law and Society Association Programming Grant for his proposal, “Building the Theory and Practice of Law, Technology, and Society.”
Prof. Waldman is launching UC Irvine Law’s Center for Law, Technology, & Society (LaTS) this fall to advance research and partnerships addressing technology’s impact on society. Through collaborations with organizations like the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, student fellowships, public events, and policy-focused programs, LaTS will tackle pressing issues such as digital abuse, privacy, and tech regulation.
An active member in the law and technology community, Prof. Waldman serves as chair of the Privacy Law Scholars Conference, the premier academic conference in the law and technology field, and president of the Privacy Law Scholars Foundation. He is also an elected member of the American Law Institute and holds board leadership positions at the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative and Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). In 2020, he founded @Legally_Queer, a social media project that educates the public about the legal history, present and future of LGBTQ+ freedom.
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