Rate My Professor Martha Minow

Martha L. Minow is the 300th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard University, with appointments at Harvard Law School, where she has taught since 1981, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She served as Dean of Harvard Law School from 2009 to 2017. Minow received her A.B. magna cum laude from the University of Michigan in 1975, an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1976, and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1979, serving as Articles and Book Review Editor of the Yale Law Journal. Her early career included clerkships with Judge David L. Bazelon on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1979-1980) and Justice Thurgood Marshall on the U.S. Supreme Court (1980-1981). At Harvard Law School, she progressed from Assistant Professor (1981-1986) to Professor (1986 onward), holding chairs such as the Jeremiah Smith Jr. Professor of Law (2005-2013), William Henry Bloomberg Professor of Law (2003-2005), and Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence (2017-2018). She chaired Harvard Law School's Curricular Committee from 2003 to 2007, launching reforms to the first-year curriculum and creating upper-level programs of study.

Minow's expertise lies in constitutional law and human rights, addressing issues of exclusion and discrimination, legal responses to social, political, and religious conflicts, and the regulation of communications and new technologies. Her major publications include Saving the News: Why the Constitution Calls for Government Action to Preserve the Freedom of Speech (Oxford University Press, 2021), When Should Law Forgive? (W.W. Norton & Company, 2019), In Brown’s Wake: Legacies of America’s Educational Landmark (Oxford University Press, 2010), Partners, Not Rivals: Privatization and the Public Good (Beacon Press, 2002), Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History after Genocide and Mass Violence (Beacon Press, 1998), and Making All the Difference: Inclusion, Exclusion, and American Law (Cornell University Press, 1990). She has earned the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award (2024), Freedom of the Press Career Achievement Award (2023), Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize (2016), fellowship in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1992), and ten honorary degrees. Minow chairs the board of GBH public media, co-chairs the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Access to Justice Project, serves on the boards of the Carnegie Corporation and Campaign Legal Center, and previously led boards of the MacArthur Foundation and Revson Foundation.