Professional Affiliation

Former Director, Division of United States Studies, Woodrow Wilson Center

Expert Bio

Philippa Strum, Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, is the Center’s former Director of the Division of United States Studies as well as Broeklundian Professor of Political Science Emerita, City University of New York.

After teaching political science (U.S. government and constitutional law; civil liberties and human rights; women, law and politics) at City University of New York for more than two decades, Dr. Strum became a visiting professor of constitutional law and civil liberties at Wayne State University Law School.  She has also taught at, e.g., New York University, Rutgers University, Barnard College, Boĝaziçi Universitesi (Istanbul), Oregon State University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Tel Aviv University, and has lectured at, e.g., Cornell University, University of Melbourne, Tunis University, Universities of Sfax, Kerouian and Gafsa (Tunisia), St. Cross College of Oxford University, Birzeit University (West Bank), Hebrew University, College of William and Mary, and the University of Oregon. The recipient of various fellowships, including those from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Philosophical Society, and the Fulbright foundation, she is a frequent expert lecturer in the Middle East and Central Asia for the Department of State. In 1994 she received the Hughes-Gossett Award for scholarly writing about the U.S. Supreme Court, presented at the court by Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

Dr. Strum has published widely on topics such as the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. presidency, civil liberties, and women and politics. Among her books are Mendez v. Westminster: School Desegregation and Mexican-American Rights; Women in the Barracks: The VMI Case and Equal Rights (2002, named a Choice Outstanding Academic Book; 2003 Merit Award from Scribes: American Society of Writers on Legal Subjects; the subject of her May 2013 lecture at the U.S. Supreme Court) and When the Nazis Came to Skokie: Freedom for the Speech We Hate (1999), both recipients of American Bar Association awards; Privacy: The Debate in the United States Since 1945 (1998); Brandeis: Beyond Progressivism (1993); The Women Are Marching: The Second Sex in the Palestinian Revolution (1992); Louis D. Brandeis: Justice for the People (1984), nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in biography; The Supreme Court and “Political Questions” (1974); and Presidential Power and American Democracy (1972, 1979). Dr. Strum’s edited Wilson Center publications include The Hispanic Challenge? What We Know about Latino Immigration; Civil Rights, Politics and the Law; Governments and Muslim Communities in the West: United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany; Women’s Rights in Theory and Practice; Muslims in the United States; American Arab and Political Participation; Women Immigrants in the United States; and Education and Immigrant Integration in the United States and Canada.

Education

B.A. Brandeis University; Ed.M. Harvard University; Ph.D. Graduate Faculty of The New School

Honors

grants and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council
of Learned Societies, the American Philosophical Society, Fulbright Program

Experience

Former Director of Division of U.S. Studies, Woodrow Wilson Center; Broeklundian Professor of Political Science Emerita, City University of New York

Expertise

American civil liberties and civil rights; U.S. constitutional law; human rights; women, law and politics; U.S. government; U.S. Arabs and Muslims

Wilson Center Project

“On Account of Sex: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the Making of Gender Equality Law."

"Why Americans Get to Talk so Much: Speech Jurisprudence in the United States"

Major Publications

• Mendez v. Westminster: School Desegregation and Mexican-American Rights (University Press of Kansas, 2010) 
• Women in the Barracks: The VMI Case and Women’s Rights (University Press of Kansas, 2002)
• When the Nazis Came to Skokie: Freedom for the Speech We Hate, (University Press of Kansas, 1999)
• Privacy: The Debate in the United States Since 1945 (Wadsworth Press, 1997)
• Louis D. Brandeis: Justice for the People (Harvard University Press, 1984)
• Muslims in the United States: Identity, Influence, Innovation (Woodrow Wilson Center, 2005) (editor) 

Previous Terms

September 1, 2008 to August 1, 2010