Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar  (2021-2022). Bell will work on a book about efforts to reform U.S. law and policy on race and class marginalization. Drawing in part on interview data from a participatory study of black youth, she concludes that policymakers often miss an important challenge confronting lawmakers in poor communities of color: legal estrangement, or the process through which institutions perpetuate the idea that marginalized groups do not fully share in all the rights and freedoms that flow to other Americans.

Suzanne Tassier Chair, Université libre de Bruxelles, 2020-2021.

Yale Law Women Faculty Excellence Award, 2019.

Harvard Law School Annual International Women’s Day Honoree, which recognized "women inspiring change through their outstanding contributions in the area of law and policy," 2019.