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Mayeri appointed Distinguished Lecturer by Organization of American Historians

April 20, 2016

Professor Serena Mayer was appointed to the Distinguished Lectureship Program by the Organization of American Historians.
Professor Serena Mayer was appointed to the Distinguished Lectureship Program by the Organization of American Historians.
Penn Law professor Serena Mayeri was appointed to the prestigious Distinguished Lectureship Program by the Organization of American Historians.

Penn Law professor Serena Mayeri was one of 78 new speakers appointed to the prestigious Distinguished Lectureship Program by the Organization of American Historians (OAH).

The more than 400 OAH Distinguished Lecturers come from some of the nation’s top universities and speak to audiences across the country each year at museums, libraries, universities, community centers, churches and synagogues, and other venues to promote understanding and appreciation of all facets of U.S. history from the 1600s through the present.

Mayeri is a Professor of Law and History, and her 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.

Mayeri’s current book project, tentatively titled The Status of Marriage: Marital Supremacy Challenged and Remade, 1960-2000, examines the history of challenges to marriage’s primacy as a legal institution and a source of public and private benefits. Her recent article in the California Law Review explored the concept of marriage supremacy by tracing the outcomes of “illegitimacy” cases through the 1960s and 1970s.

Mayeri teaches courses in family law, employment discrimination, gender and the law, and legal history. She has a secondary appointment in the Department of History, and is a Core Faculty member in the Program on Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies.