Legal Studies Program

Faculty

Faculty and Fellows

Rosalind Kabrhel
Rosalind E.W. Kabrhel, JD
Chair of Legal Studies
Associate Professor of the Practice in Legal Studies
 781-736-3027 Brown Social Science Center 322
Office Hours: Spring 2025: M-W 10:00 AM- 2:00 PM. Tuesday office hours by appointment only

Expertise: Attorney. Anti-discrimination law and policy, civil rights, litigation, criminal justice and prison reform, juvenile justice, wrongful convictions, institutional investigations and policy analysis and reform

Melissa Stimell
Melissa Stimell, JD
Professor of the Practice in Legal Studies
Director, ENACT: The Abraham Feinberg Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation
781-736-8577 Abraham Shapiro Academic Complex 308

Expertise: Attorney; international law, conflict resolution, legislative advocacy at the state level, represented vulnerable populations in such areas as: criminal law, discrimination of individuals with disabilities and child welfare

Daniel Breen
Dan Breen, JD, PhD
Associate Professor of the Practice in Legal Studies
Undergraduate Advising Head (UAH) and Study Abroad Liaison (SAL) for Legal Studies
781-736-3024 Brown Social Science Center 322a
Office Hours: Spring 2025: M-Th 1 PM-5PM. Often there on Friday too.

Expertise: American law, history of the Early Republic

Sarah Curi
Sarah Elisabeth Curi, JD, MPH
Associate Professor of the Practice in Health: Science, Society & Policy and in Legal Studies
Undergraduate Advising Head (UAH) and Study Abroad Liaison (SAL) for HSSP
781-736-3654 Brown Social Science Center 319
Office Hours: Spring 2025: By appointment. Times vary week to week

Expertise: Practicing attorney; American health care law and policy, health care reform, public health, biomedical ethics, business law

Doug Smith, JD
Lecturer in Legal Studies
781-736-3029 Brown Social Science Center 323a

Expertise: Legal pedagogy, lawyers' socialization, experiential learning, law and social movements, law and economics, conflict resolution, lawyering, movement lawyering, immigration, human rights, comparative legal systems, Indigenous legal systems, Native American tribal law, federal Indian law, emergent legal ordering, storying, policy analysis

Tanishia Williams
Tanishia Williams, PhD
Florence Levy Kay Fellow in Racial Justice, Education, and the Carceral State
Office Hours: Spring 2025: Upon Request

Expertise: Urban politics at the intersection of race, gender, and class; public education

photo of Melissa Johannes
Melissa Johannes, JD
Lecturer in Legal Studies
781-736-7990 Brown Social Science Center 320
Office Hours: Spring 2025: By Appointment

Expertise: Intersection of science, technology, business strategy and communications.  Business and patent law.

Melissa McKenna
Melissa McKenna, JD, MA
Lecturer in Legal Studies
781-736-3025 Brown Social Science Center 318
Office Hours: Spring 2025: W, TH 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM or by appointment

Expertise: Legal services attorney; special education law, domestic violence and family law, housing rights

photo of Charlotte Powley
Charlotte Powley, PhD
Assistant Director of Research, ENACT; Lecturer
Office Hours: Spring 2025: Upon Request

Expertise: Social policy, intersections of menstrual health and public spaces in the US, gender, justice & legislation; ENACT Research

Affiliated Faculty

Anita Hill
Anita Hill, JD
University Professor of Social Policy, Law, and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies
781-736-3896 Heller-Brown Building 374

Expertise: Anti-discrimination law and policy (gender and race)

Chandler Rosenberger
Chandler Rosenberger, MST, PhD
Assistant Professor of International & Global Studies and in Sociology
781-736-2638 Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for the Humanities 106

Expertise: Nationalism, sociology of religion, comparative and historical sociology

Michael Willrich
Michael Willrich, PhD
Leff Families Professor of History
781-736-2292 Olin-Sang American Civilization Center 217

Expertise: United States social, legal and political history

photo of Lynn Kaye
Lynn Kaye
Associate Professor of Rabbinic Literature and Thought
Office Hours: By Appointment

Expertise: Law, hermeneutics, narrative and thought in rabbinic literature, philosophies of time, legal theory, religions of late antique Mesopotamia and critical and literary theory

Richard Gaskins
Richard Gaskins, JD
Professor Emeritus of Legal Studies