Serena Mayeri
Professor of Law and History

Serena Mayeri’s scholarship focuses on the historical impact of progressive and conservative social movements on legal and constitutional change. Her book, Reasoning from Race: Feminism, Law, and the Civil Rights Revolution (Harvard University Press, 2011) received the Littleton-Griswold Prize from the American Historical Association and the Darlene Clark Hine Award from the Organization of American Historians.
Books
REASONING FROM RACE: FEMINISM, LAW, AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS REVOLUTION (Harvard University Press, 2011; paperback edition, 2014).
[Available Here]
Articles and Book Chapters
After Suffrage: The Unfinished Business of Feminist Legal Advocacy, 129 YALE L. J. F. 512 (2020).
Un-Dueing Roe: Constitutional Conflict and Political Polarization in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS AND JUSTICE LAW STORIES (Reva B. Siegel, Melissa Murray, and Katherine Shaw eds., Foundation Press 2019).
Intersectionality and the Constitution of Family Status, 32 CONST. COMMENT. 377 (2017).
Marriage (In)equality and the Historical Legacies of Feminism, 6 CALIF. L. REV. CIRCUIT 126 (2015).
Marital Supremacy and the Constitution of the Non-Marital Family, 103 CALIF. L. REV.1277 (2015).
The Functions of Family Law, 163 U. PA. L. REV. ONLINE 377 (2015).
Queering the History of Sex Discrimination, Book Review of Phil Tiemeyer, PLANE QUEER: LABOR, SEXUALITY, AND AIDS IN THE HISTORY OF MALE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS, Jotwell, February 2015.
Historicizing the "End of Men": The Politics of Reaction(s), 93 B.U. L. REV 729 (2013).
Reconstructing the Race-Sex Analogy, 49 WM. & MARY L. REV. 1789 (2008).
Un-Dueing Roe: Constitutional Conflict and Political Polarization in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in Reproductive Rights and Justice Law Stories (Melissa Murray, Kate Shaw, & Reva B. Siegel eds., 2019).
[Available Here]
The U.S. Women’s Jury Movements and Strategic Adaptation: A More Just Verdict. By Holly J. McCammon (2012), 100:1 J. AM. HIST. 247 (June 2013) (book review).
More publications can be found here.
Working Papers
The Status of Marriage: Marital Supremacy Challenged and Remade, 1960-2000 (work-in-progress). (forthcoming)
The State of Illegitimacy After the Civil Rights Revolution, in INTIMATE STATES: GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND GOVERNANCE IN MODERN U.S. HISTORY (Margot Canaday, Nancy F. Cott, and Robert O. Self eds., University of Chicago Press, forthcoming). (forthcoming)
Race, Sexual Citizenship, and the Constitution of Nonmarital Motherhood, in HETEROSEXUAL HISTORIES (Rebecca L. Davis and Michele Mitchell eds., New York University Press, forthcoming 2021). (forthcoming)
Research Areas
- Legal and constitutional history
- Antidiscrimination law and policy
- Family law and history
- Civil Rights and Feminism
- Marriage and its alternatives
Positions
Penn Law – Professor of Law and History (2011-); Assistant Professor (2006-11)
Law Clerk to the Hon. Guido Calabresi, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit (2003-04)
New York University School of Law – Samuel I. Golieb Fellow (2004-06)
Professional Activities
Planning Committee, AALS Workshop on Women Rethinking Equality
Secretary, Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities
Contributing Editor, Jotwell Legal History Section., 2010-present.
Peer Reviewer, Law and History Review, 2008-present; Oxford University Press, 2009- present.
Courses
- Family Law
- Law and Social Movements in Twentieth-Century America
- Employment Discrimination
- Gender and the Law in Recent American History
- Feminist Legal Advocacy in the Twentieth-Century United States
- Marriage: History and Law