I am the J.R. Herbert Boone Chair in the Humanities and Professor in the Department of Comparative Thought and Literature at Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. I work as a scholar and teacher of law and literature, primarily in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. My research has always tackled democracy and rights: my last book examined corporate personhood in the United States (before Citizens United) and my latest book, coming out next February, shows how giving more rights to corporations has undermined citizenship. As a faculty member, JHU alum (KSAS, Ph.D. ’04), and daughter of immigrants, I feel called to serve our AAUP chapter to defend higher education–and Johns Hopkins–at this staggering moment in our history. For these reasons, I am proud to serve as the AAUP JHU chapter President on the GROWTH platform, a document drafted with colleagues Ahmed Ragab (Vice-President), Siobhán Cooke (Secretary), and Graham Mooney (Treasurer).

As President, I aim to build on the outreach, networking, and advocacy work of the executive board members Juliana, Photini, and François, who heroically resurrected our chapter in 2023. This is a big tent moment, and we need everyone at Hopkins who is willing and able to help us protect and advocate for the tent. 

During my 20 years or so in higher ed, I have served in numerous leadership roles within universities, scholarly associations, and beyond. I have led committees and units at Hopkins as well as at my previous institution, Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, TX. I ran a multifaceted institute as the Ruth Collins Altshuler Director of the Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute at SMU. During the pandemic, I chaired my department at Hopkins, gaining an unmatched education in our university’s crisis management along the way. 

More informally, last spring (2024), I worked for several weeks with a small group of Hopkins faculty and postdocs to successfully mediate the peaceful resolution of the encampment at the “Beach” in front of the Hopkins library. Last month, past AAUP JHU chapter president Derek Schilling and I drafted an open letter in support of academic freedom that has gathered over 250 signatures (I usually update its AAUP website page daily, so thank you for your patience with it). Most recently, Ahmed and I have been organizing with other AAUP faculty volunteers to run a Rapid Action Group, coordinating with the graduate student union, TRU, to assist students whose visas have been revoked under the Trump administration. 

If elected, I will use all of my multidisciplinary skills to strategize and tactically plan on behalf of our chapter. After receiving tenure and while teaching and researching, I enrolled part-time in law school, took a year of coursework at Harvard Law School, and earned a J.D. in May 2019. I foresee this legal background (which includes constitutional, labor, and employment discrimination law) as being particularly useful at a time when the judicial system has been one of the few remaining areas of resistance to the administration.

As AAUP JHU chapter president, I am committed to talking to and working with members from every department and division, doing my utmost to put into practice the GROWTH platform with everyone who wants to participate. This is the moment for Hopkins to fight and defend itself–strategically, rapidly, and effectively. We need everyone, and we have no time to lose.