Professor Dr. Elise Boddie

Biography

Elise Boddie is the James V. Campbell Professor at the University of Michigan Law School, where she specializes in constitutional law, state and local government law, and civil rights. Her scholarship focuses on how regulation, production, race, and spatial contexts interplay to perpetuate racial inequality. Boddie has garnered recognition through numerous accolades including the John Hope Franklin Prize awarded by the Law and Society Association in 2012 for her influential article “Racial Territoriality,” which was published in the UCLA Law Review. Her work has appeared in various prestigious legal journals and she regularly contributes commentary to major media outlets like the Washington Post and Salon. In addition to her academic role, Boddie is an active public speaker and has served on significant legal committees, including a bipartisan group to reform the federal Electoral Count Act. Prior to joining Michigan Law, she held a faculty position at Rutgers University where she directed the Inclusion Project aimed at developing equitable educational systems in New Jersey. Boddie has also worked as a principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and led litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. She is a member of the American Law Institute and was appointed a fellow of the American Bar Foundation in 2019.

Research Interests

Experience