University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law professors Mark Graber and Paula A. Monopoli have been named University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) Distinguished University Professors. The designation is the highest appointment bestowed on a faculty member at UMB and recognizes both excellence and the recipient’s contributions to their field.
Graber and Monopoli were honored at UMB’s fall convocation on September 11 where they received the Distinguished University Professor medal from UMB President Bruce Jarrell. The program also spotlighted Maryland Carey Law Professor Max Stearns, who spoke about his most recent book, Parliamentary America: The Least Radical Means of Radically Repairing Our Broken Democracy.
“Congratulations to professors Graber and Monopoli on this well-deserved honor,” said Maryland Carey Law Dean Renée Hutchins Laurent. “Their work as impactful scholars and compassionate educators makes us deeply proud. We are all better because they are part of our community.”
Professor Mark Graber joined the Maryland Carey Law faculty in 2002 after holding a faculty position in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park, from 1993 to 2007. He is a leading expert in constitutional law and politics and considered a founder of the American Constitutional Development movement, which analyzes constitutional doctrine combining tools from the disciplines of law, history, government, and American politics. He is the author of five books, 10 edited collections, and more than 200 scholarly articles, book chapters, and other writings. In April, Graber was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to continue his work on constitutional powers and rights.
In 2016, Graber was named a University System of Maryland (USM) Regents Professor, the most prestigious USM rank. The seventh Regents Professor in USM history, he is the only professor on the UMB campus to hold the title.
Graber holds a PhD in political science from Yale University, a JD from Columbia Law, and a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College. He has served as a visiting professor at Harvard College, Yale Law School, the University of Pennsylvania, Oregon Law School, the University of Toronto, the University of Milan, and Radzyner Law School in Israel.
Professor Paula A. Monopoli is the Sol & Carlyn Hubert Professor of Law. She is a leading expert in feminist constitutional history and has published widely on the intersection of gender and constitutional design and inheritance law. She is the author or editor of four books, the most recent of which is Constitutional Orphan: Gender Equality and the Nineteenth Amendment (Oxford University Press 2020). She has also authored three book chapters and more than 30 scholarly articles.
Monopoli teaches in the areas of Property, Trusts & Estates and Gender and the Law, and has held several visiting appointments, most recently as a visiting scholar at the Møller Institute, Churchill College, University of Cambridge. She has also held appointments as a visiting professor at the George Washington University Law School and the Pepperdine University School of Law.
Monopoli has presented her research at Oxford University, University College Dublin, Yale Law School, the University of Virginia School of Law, and many others.
In 2002, Monopoli founded Maryland Carey Law’s Women, Leadership, and Equality Program, an innovative academic fellowship program that gives students the opportunity to explore structural barriers to women in the legal profession.
Monopoli received her JD from the University of Virginia School of Law and bachelor’s degree in political science from Yale College.