Katherine Franke

Katherine Franke is the Sulzbacher Professor of Law, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Columbia University. She directs the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law and leads the Public Rights/Private Conscience Project. Her work bridges law, religion, and rights through feminist, queer, and critical race理论 frameworks. She co-leads Columbia's Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality and the Center for Palestine Studies.

Her research focuses on reparations (e.g., Repair: The Unfinished Business of Slavery), marriage equality critiques (Wedlocked), and racial justice. She received a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship for her marriage equality research. Internationally, she mentors human rights faculty at Al Quds University and advises Jewish Voice for Peace.

She chairs the board of the Center for Constitutional Rights and actively engages in Palestinian human rights advocacy. Her scholarship interrogates how legal frameworks both empower and constrain marginalized communities, emphasizing historical redress and intersectional justice.