Join the Gender Studies Program, the School of Law and the Indigenous Studies Program on Thursday, Sept. 28, at 4 p.m. for a lecture by University Distinguished Professor and Chief Justice Sarah Deer (University of Kansas) in the E.J. Ball Courtroom in the Law School for a talk titled, "Sovereignty of the Soul: Addressing Sexual Violence in Tribal Communities."

Deer's legal scholarship focuses on the challenges facing Tribal nations in the United States, particularly criminal justice. Her 2015 book, The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America, is the culmination of over 25 years of working with survivors and criminal justice personnel and has received several awards, including the Best First Book award from the Native American Indigenous Studies Association. 

As a tribal jurist and scholar, Deer's scholarship focuses on the intersection of federal Indian law and victims' rights, using Indigenous principles as a framework. Deer is a co-author of four textbooks on tribal law and has been published in a wide variety of law journals, including the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism and the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. 

Her efforts to address criminal justice reform on Indian reservations have received national awards from the American Bar Association and the Department of Justice. She has testified before Congress on four occasions regarding violence against Native women and was appointed by Attorney General Eric Holder to chair a federal advisory committee on sexual violence in Indian country. 

Deer was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow in 2014 and a Carnegie Fellow in 2020. In 2019, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. She currently teaches at the University of Kansas (her alma mater), where she holds a joint appointment in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and the School of Public Affairs and Administration and a courtesy appointment at the School of Law.

This lecture is free and open to the public.