Rate My Professor Jennifer Nye

Jennifer Nye is a Senior Lecturer II in History, Law and Social Justice at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she also serves as the Law and History Advisor for undergraduate students and Chair of the Five College Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice Certificate. She earned a B.A. from the University of New Hampshire in 1994 and a J.D. from Boston College Law School in 1998. With over twelve years as a practicing public interest attorney, Nye began her career at Southern Arizona Legal Aid as a National Association for Public Interest Law Fellow and staff attorney, representing survivors of domestic violence in family law and immigration matters under the Violence Against Women Act. She later worked at the Arizona Center for Disability Law, litigating health and mental health care cases, including class actions challenging Medicaid denials and cuts, securing several victories at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Most recently, she was with the Center for Medicare Advocacy. Prior to joining UMass Amherst, she taught at the University of Arizona in the Department of Women’s Studies and the James E. Rogers College of Law.

Nye’s academic interests center on the United States, women, gender, sexuality, and family, with research in critical legal theory, critical race theory, feminist jurisprudence, and the role of law and litigation in social movements addressing LGBT rights, disability, domestic violence, reproductive rights, and poverty law. She teaches courses such as Women and the Law: History of Sex and Gender Discrimination, Rape Law: Gender, Race, (In)Justice, History of Reproductive Rights Law, Sex and the Supreme Court, Social Justice Lawyering, U.S. Women’s History from 1890, and Liberty or Equality?: History of the LGBT Rights Law. Her publications include "The Gender Box" in the Berkeley Women’s Law Journal (1998), "Legal Response to Domestic Violence in the GLBT Community" in Domestic Violence and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Community: A Resource (2000), The Nuts and Bolts of Domestic Relations and Domestic Violence Law (CLE Seminar Manual, 2001), and An Overview of Arizona Medicaid Services & Due Process Rights (CLE Seminar Manual, 2009). In 2023, she received the College of Humanities and Fine Arts Outstanding Teaching Award for her exceptional teaching, mentoring, and curriculum development.