Maggie Blackhawk

Maggie Blackhawk is a Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, renowned for her scholarship on federal Indian law, constitutional law, and colonialism. She holds affiliations with the NYU School of Law and previously served at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Her work bridges legal theory and historical analysis, focusing on how marginalized groups leverage law to reshape power dynamics.

Her research explores American colonialism’s role in shaping U.S. constitutional history and public law, with key publications in Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, and American Historical Review. She has received the Cromwell Prize for Legal History and the Harvey Levin Teaching Award.

Blackhawk’s current projects include American Colonialism: A National Biography (Liveright/W.W. Norton, forthcoming) and Colonial Administration: Empires, Civilization, and the Making of Political Science (University of Oklahoma Press). She consults on public education initiatives like the Obama Presidential Center and collaborates with documentarian Ken Burns.

She teaches courses on constitutional law, federal Indian law, and public law, emphasizing interdisciplinary research methods. Her grants include support from the American Political Science Association and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics.