Evelyn Atkinson

Evelyn Atkinson is the Charles E. Lugenbuhl Associate Professor of Law at Tulane Law School and the Murphy Institute. She specializes in constitutional law, legal history, and the intersection of race, law, and capitalism. Her research explores 19th-century legal developments, particularly the constitutional foundations of corporate personhood.

Atkinson’s scholarly work has been published in top-tier journals including the Virginia Law Review and Michigan Law Review. She is currently completing a book manuscript, American Frankenstein: A History of the Constitutional Corporate Person in the Nineteenth Century, under contract with Columbia University Press. Her research has been supported by fellowships such as the Robert Gordon/Stanford Law School Hurst Institute and the American Bar Foundation’s Law & Inequality Doctoral Fellowship.

She holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Chicago, a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School, and a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College. Her affiliations include the Center on Law and the Economy and the Murphy Institute at Tulane University.

Her awards include the Kathryn T. Preyer Award (American Society for Legal History) and the Fishel-Calhoun Article Prize (Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era). Her teaching focuses on constitutional law, legal history, and seminars addressing race, law, and capitalism.

Atkinson’s research bridges historical legal analysis with contemporary debates, particularly how 19th-century precedents shape modern corporate rights and racial justice frameworks. She actively contributes to interdisciplinary discussions at the Murphy Institute, fostering collaborations between legal scholars and economic historians.