Rate My Professor Sarah Marusek

Sarah Marusek, Full Professor of Political Science in Public Law and Department Chair at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (2008), an MS in Labor Studies from the same institution (2003), and a BA in Social Thought & Political Economy and German (1997). She joined UH Hilo in 2009 as Assistant Professor, advancing to Associate Professor in 2013 (with tenure in 2014) and Full Professor in 2018. Previously, she served as Visiting Assistant Professor at Mount Holyoke College (2008-2009). As Pre-Law Certificate Coordinator, she advises students and teaches courses such as Law, Politics & Society, Legal Geography, Constitutional Law, and Law and Identity.

Marusek's research examines law in everyday life, specializing in legal geography, legal semiotics, constitutive legal theory, material legalities, and automobility. Her monographs include Politics of Parking: Rights, Identity, and Property (Routledge, 2012; reissued 2016), Law and the Kinetic Environment: Regulating Dynamic Landscapes (Routledge, 2021; nominated for 2022 Hart-SLSA Book Prize), and Law, Space, and the Vehicular Environment: Pavement and Asphalt (Routledge, 2023). She has co-edited Research Handbook on Legal Semiotics (Edward Elgar, 2023), Handbook on Cyber Hate, the Modern Cyber Evil (Springer, 2024), Flags, Color, and the Legal Narrative (Springer, 2021), and others. Articles feature in Law, Culture and the Humanities, International Journal for the Semiotics of Law, Social Semiotics, and Land Use Policy. She co-edits Springer's Law and Visual Jurisprudence and Living Signs of Law series and serves as Associate Editor for the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law. Marusek received the 2011 University of Hawaiʻi Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the 2024 UH Hilo Faculty Engagement Award, and grants including a 2019 STINT grant ($16,000 USD). She has visited universities in Italy, France, Sweden, and Australia, influencing law and society scholarship internationally.