Who We Are

The Director

Professor Nancy J. Knauer is the Director of the Law & Public Policy Program.  She teaches in the areas of political & civil rights, property, and taxation. For the past twenty-five years, Professor Knauer’s scholarship has explored the impact of law and public policy on the lives of LGBT people.  She is the author of Gay and Lesbian Elders: History, Law and Identity Politics in the US and more than forty academic articles, books, and book chapters.  She has received numerous awards for teaching, service and scholarship.  She is the co-founder of the Aging, Law & Society Collaborative Research Network of the Law & Society Association and served on the Executive Committee of the Family Law Institute of the National LGBT Association.

Professor Knauer’s innovative approach to legal education earned a profile in the book What the Best Law Teachers Do, published by Harvard University Press in 2013.  The book featured 26 law professors who were selected from more than 250 nominees teaching at over 100 law schools. She has written two articles about the Program: a short Essay for the Law Teacher and a longer law review article about learning communities.

Advisory Board