Issa Kohler-Hausmann

Issa Kohler-Hausmann is a Professor of Law at Yale Law School and an Associate Professor of Sociology at Yale University. Admitted to practice in New York State and multiple federal districts, she maintains an active pro bono legal practice focusing on juvenile sentencing and class-action litigation.

• Education: Ph.D. in Sociology from New York University (2014), J.D. from Yale Law School (2008), M.A. in Sociology from Northwestern University (2006), and B.A. from the University of Wisconsin (2000).

Her research spans criminal law, empirical legal studies, and social theory, with a focus on how legal systems conceptualize social categories like race and gender for discrimination analysis. She authored Misdemeanorland, examining New York City's lower criminal courts and broken windows policing, which won multiple awards including the Herbert Jacob Book Prize and Mirra Komarovsky Book Award.

Recent scholarly work includes publications in Science on behavioral nudges to reduce court failure-to-appear rates, and in Northwestern Law Review on constitutional frameworks for parity and equal protection. She also co-led amicus briefs in landmark Supreme Court cases concerning transgender healthcare rights.

• Scientific Awards: 2019 Herbert Jacob Book Prize, 2019 Mirra Komarovsky Book Award, 2019 Albert J. Reiss Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award, and 2018 C. Wright Mills Award Finalist.

Her legal practice extends to class action suits for juvenile life sentence reform and advocacy for prison population reduction during public health crises. She served as a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation (2017–18) and held prior positions at Georgetown University Law Center and the ACLU of Wisconsin.