Romero

Tom I. Romero II

Professor of Law & Affiliated Faculty, Department of History

Director, Interdisciplinary Research Institute for the Study of Inequality

  • Faculty
  • Sturm College of Law
  • Rocky Mountain Collective on Race, Place & Law
  • Environmental & Natural Resources Law Program

Specialization(s)

Environmental and Natural Resources Law, Legal History, Property Law, Water Law, Environmental Law

Professional Biography

Dr. Romero is a Professor of Law and is Affiliated Faculty with the Department of History at DU. The author of numerous articles, book chapters, and essays, Dr. Romero teaches and researches in the areas of the legal history of the American West, with a particular emphasis on the relationship between race and water law, school desegregation, property, land use, and urban development and local government.

Currently, Dr. Romero is revising a book manuscript on the legal history of race and law in post-World War II Denver, Colorado. He also working on several projects related to the past history and current challenges of immigration, racial inequity, and water law and policy. Those projects include a book chapter that examines the intersection between developments in water and immigration law in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and a community based participatory research project on water access and water quality issues impacting a Latinx neighborhood in Denver, Colorado.

Dr. Romero has served as the interim Vice Chancellor of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Associate Provost of DEI Research and Curricular Initiatives for the university during the last eight years. He also directs all activities associated with DU’s Interdisciplinary Research Institute for the Study of (In)Equality (IRISE).

Dr. Romero is also is on the advisory board of History Colorado’s Lost Highways Podcast and was a featured expert in Season 2’s episode on the Colorado’s declaration of martial law against Mexican Americans during the Great Depression. He is also a board member of the Colorado Water Trust and the One World One Water Center at the Metropolitan State University of Denver.  He received his Ph.D and J.D. from the University of Michigan and is an undergraduate alum of the University of Denver.

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Degree(s)

  • PhD, History, University of Michigan, 2004
  • JD, University of Michigan, 2000
  • MA, History, University of Michigan, 1999
  • BA, History/Public Affairs, University of Denver, 1995

Featured Publications