Deborah Dinner

Deborah Dinner serves as the Dorothea S. Clarke Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, with cross-appointments in Cornell University's Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program and History Department within the College of Arts and Sciences. A legal historian specializing in twentieth-century U.S. gender, labor, and welfare state dynamics, she examines intersections between social movements, legal thought, and political culture.

Education:

• B.A., Yale College, 1999
• J.D., Yale Law School, 2005
• Ph.D., Yale University, 2012

Professor Dinner's scholarship critically analyzes how legal frameworks shape gender equality within capitalist systems, particularly focusing on the tension between individual rights and collective social supports. Her work reveals how neoliberal policies transformed sex discrimination law while dismantling welfare infrastructure, leaving caregivers without state support. Current research investigates actuarial logic in private insurance through historical legal disputes about risk classification and social inequity.

Her publications demonstrate sustained engagement with feminist legal theory's evolution, the historical roots of care crises, and the legal construction of gendered labor markets. Dinner consistently connects historical analysis to contemporary debates on reproductive rights, workplace discrimination, and social reproduction.

Scientific Awards:

• Program in Law & Public Affairs (LAPA) Fellowship at Princeton University (2020-2021)
• American Council of Learned Societies Frederick Burkhardt Fellowship (Kluge Center at Library of Congress, 2022-2023)

As an educator, Dinner mentors law students and graduate researchers through courses including Property, Employment Discrimination, Family Law, and Gender & the Law. Her scholarship has directly influenced legal discourse, with citations in U.S. Supreme Court opinions such as 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis. Current projects include completing The Sex Equality Dilemma: Work, Family, and Legal Change in Neoliberal America and advancing A Nation at Risk: Private Insurance and the Law in Modern America.