Michelle J. Anderson (born January 30, 1967) is the 10th President of

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

, and a leading scholar on

rape law Rape is a type of sexual assault initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, under threat or manipulation, by impersonation, or with a person who is incapa ...

Education

Anderson graduated from the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...

in 1989 with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in Community Studies, earning Honors in the Major,

Merrill College Merrill College is a residential college at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The theme of the college, and the name of its freshman core course, is "cultural identities and global consciousness." Location Merrill is located at the far n ...

Honors, and Senior Thesis Highest Honors. She won the Chancellor's Award for outstanding academic achievement. While a UC Santa Cruz student, Anderson spent eighteen months "bleaching, dieting, training, tanning, and feigning fundamentalist beliefs to get into the running" for the

Miss California The Miss California competition selects the representative for the state of California in the Miss America competition. The pageant began in Santa Cruz in 1924 and was held there in 1925. During the years 1926 through 1946 in years when the Mi ...

beauty pageant, becoming Miss Santa Cruz County. During the televised pageant, just prior to the announcement of a winner, Anderson unveiled a banner that read "pageants hurt all women." She attended

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

, where she was notes editor of the ''

Yale Law Journal The ''Yale Law Journal'' (YLJ), known also as the ''Yale Law Review'', is a student-run law review affiliated with the Yale Law School. Published continuously since 1891, it is the most widely known of the eight law reviews published by students ...

''. Anderson was an intern in the chambers of Judge Ellen Bree Burns on the

United States District Court for the District of Connecticut The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (in case citations, D. Conn.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Connecticut. The court has offices in Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven. Appeals ...

. She worked with

Harold Koh Harold Hongju Koh (born December 8, 1954) is an American lawyer and legal scholar who served as the legal adviser of the Department of State in the Obama administration. He was nominated to this position by President Barack Obama on March 23, 20 ...

Michael Ratner Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...

, and students in the Yale Law School International Human Rights Clinic on litigation on behalf of Haitian refugees. Anderson was also a visiting scholar at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

, South Africa.

Academic career

After graduating from Yale Law School in 1994, Anderson clerked on the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

for Judge William A. Norris. After clerking, she worked as a Fellow and Supervising Attorney at the Appellate Litigation Clinic at

Georgetown University Law Center The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...

from 1995-97. There, she also earned a

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

in Advocacy. Anderson joined the faculty of

Villanova University School of Law Villanova University's Charles Widger School of Law (known as Villanova University School of Law) is a law school of the Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania. Opened in 1953, the School of Law is approved by the American Bar Associat ...

in 1998, where she taught Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Feminist Legal Theory, and Children and the Law for eight years, earning top rankings as a professor. She has been a visiting professor at

, the

University of Pittsburgh School of Law The University of Pittsburgh School of Law (Pitt Law) was founded in 1895. It became a charter member of the Association of American Law Schools in 1900. Its primary home facility is the Barco Law Building. The school offers four degrees: Master ...

, and

. She served as Dean at

CUNY School of Law The City University of New York School of Law (CUNY School of Law) is a public law school in New York City. It was founded in 1983 as part of the City University of New York. CUNY School of Law was established as a public interest law school wi ...

from 2006-2016. Under Anderson's leadership, CUNY Law moved from a converted junior high school in

Flushing, Queens Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial and retail area, and the ...

, to a new, LEED gold-certified building in

Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a residential and commercial neighborhood on the extreme western tip of Queens, a borough in New York City. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; New Calvary Cemetery in Sunnyside to the ...

. Under her leadership, CUNY Law achieved excellent national recognition, including top rankings for public interest law, clinical programs, and diversity of the student body and faculty. During her tenure, CUNY Law also launched the Pipeline to Justice Program, the Incubator Program, the Community & Economic Development Clinic, the Center for Urban Environmental Reform, the Center on latino/a Rights and Equality, and the Sorensen Center for International Peace and Justice. Anderson was a member of the

New York City Bar Association The New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization, formally known as the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, has been headquartered in a ...

's Task Force on New Lawyers in a Changing Profession. She has written on the importance of matching underemployed attorneys with low and moderate-income communities that have great need for legal services they can afford. Along with the New York City Bar Association and some of the city's largest law firms, CUNY Law launched the Court Square Law Project in 2016. She has been called "one of the legal academy's most perceptive and prolific legal scholars in the area" of

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

. Anderson's work traces the history and evolution of rape law and contrasts it with the reform surrounding campus sexual assault. Her scholarship covers the resistance requirement in rape law, rape shield laws, marital rape laws, the corroboration requirement, prompt complaint requirement, and cautionary instructions in rape law, campus sexual assault codes, the place of prostitution and similar prior sexual history in rape cases, and the legal impact of negative social attitudes toward acquaintance rape victims. She has written about

sex education Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual acti ...

's influence on cultural norms of gender in sexuality, the sexual assault of political detainees under South African apartheid, and the traditional constructs of stranger rape and their impact on rape jurisprudence She has also written a new model for how to define rape legally, which focuses on negotiating desires and boundaries. In 2015, Anderson engaged in an "Intelligence Squared
debate
on campus sexual assault with Jed Rubenfeld,

Jeannie Suk Jeannie Suk Gersen (born 1973) is a professor of law at Harvard Law School. Biography Suk attended Hunter College High School, graduating in 1991. In 1995, Suk received her B.A. in Literature from Yale University, and a D.Phil at St Hugh's Colle ...

, and Stephen Schulhofer. Anderson's research has been published in the ''

'', ''Boston University Law Review'', ''

George Washington Law Review ''The George Washington Law Review'' is a bimonthly law review edited and published by students at the George Washington University Law School. It was established in 1932 and publishes scholarly articles, essays, and student notes. A double issue ...

'', ''

Hastings Law Journal Hastings Law Journal is the oldest law journal at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. It began in 1949 in San Francisco, California. As of 1997, it is under the umbrella of the O'Brien Center for Scholarly Publications. Th ...

'', ''

Rutgers Law Review The ''Rutgers Law Review'' was a quarterly, scholarly journal focusing on legal issues, published by an organization of second- and third-year law students at the former Rutgers School of Law–Newark, in Newark, New Jersey. It was the flagship l ...

'', '' Southern California Law Review'', and ''University of Illinois Law Review''.

President of Brooklyn College

Anderson became the 10th President of

in August 2016. As her first year as president, Anderson invited

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...

by writing him a letter and telling him to “come home.”

Honors

Anderson is a member of the

American Law Institute The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and its adaptation to changing social needs. ...

, an Adviser to the ALI's Model Penal Code: Sexual Assault and Related Offenses Project, and a Consultant to its Project on Sexual & Gender-Based Misconduct on Campus. She is a former Policy Chair of the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence. In 2007, the

Feminist Press The Feminist Press (officially The Feminist Press at CUNY) is an American independent nonprofit literary publisher that promotes freedom of expression and social justice. It publishes writing by people who share an activist spirit and a belief in ...

gave Anderson the Susan Rosenberg Zalk Award. In 2011, ''

Education Update ''Education Update'' is an American non-profit monthly newspaper, published in New York City. It focuses on issues related to education and has a circulation of approximately 100,000. The publisher, retired education professor Pola Rosen, bega ...

'' newspaper gave her the Distinguished Leader in Education Award. In 2013, the Center for Women in Government and Civil Society at the

University of Albany A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

gave her the Public Service Leadership Award. In 2014, the

gave her the Diversity & Inclusion Champion Award. In 2016, City & State gave her an Above and Beyond Award for Women of Public and Civic Mind. In 2017, Brooklyn Legal Services gave her
Champion of Justice Award

References

External links

*

at

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Michelle University of California, Santa Cruz alumni Yale Law School alumni American beauty pageant contestants American feminists 1967 births People from Valdosta, Georgia CUNY School of Law Deans of law schools in the United States Women deans (academic) Georgetown University Law Center alumni Living people American legal writers American academic administrators Women legal scholars People from Brooklyn Presidents of Brooklyn College