Renée Ann Cramer has called the Law and Society Association home since attending her first meeting, as a participant in the Graduate Student Workshop, in Miami in 2000. Cramer is Professor of Law, Politics, and Society at Drake University (Des Moines, IA). She holds PhD and an MA in Political Science from New York University (2001; 2000); her BA in Politics is from Bard College (1994). Her current research, funded by the Law and Social Sciences section of the National Science Foundation, as well as by the American Political Science Association, is on the legal mobilization of pro-midwifery advocates in the United States. Cramer’s most recent book, Pregnant with the Stars: Watching and Wanting the Pregnant Celebrity Body was published in the Cultural Lives of the Law list at Stanford University Press, in 2015. Her abiding interest in the constitution of identity and status through interaction with regulatory law is evident in her first book, Cash, Color, and Colonialism: The Politics of Tribal Acknowledgment (2005), which grew from her dissertation, named 2001 Best Dissertation in the Field of Racial and Ethnic Politics by APSA. Cramer’s articles have been published in PLoS One: Medicine, International Review of Qualitative Research, Law and Social Inquiry, Law & Policy, and elsewhere. She serves on the editorial board of Law & Policy, and has been actively involved in the Life of the Law. A first generation college student from small town South Dakota, Cramer has dedicated her teaching career to developing the capacity of undergraduates, and, as Department Chair for seven years, building a vibrant, equitable, and inclusive culture of interdisciplinary sociolegal studies. She has served on the Board of the Consortium of Undergraduate Law and Justice Programs (CULJPS), including two terms as president (2014-2018). In this capacity she worked closely with LSA to field professional development panels on undergraduate research, the relationship of law school and undergraduate education, how to navigate the job market, and program/curricular development. She has served on the LSA Membership and Professional Development Committee, including two years as co-chair, and as a member of the Herbert Jacob Book Prize committee (2017-2018). A committed “public intellectual” Cramer’s op-eds have been published nationally, and she frequently contributes to reporting on reproductive justice issues. She is interested to see LSA expand its public-facing programming, enabling the Association to contribute our members’ voices to public conversations that would benefit from our expertise.

Twitter: @Smilla1972