Professor (by courtesy) of Sociology

A law professor and a sociologist, Michele Landis Dauber has written highly original historical and sociological studies about the relationship between welfare programs and disaster relief programs in the formation of the modern American welfare state. She has focused her scholarship on aspects of the history of the New Deal and the fate of the legal doctrines and policies it created. She has also written about such varied topics as abortion clinic conflict, social security privatization, affirmative action, and the early history of administrative law during the War of 1812. In addition to her scholarly work, Professor Dauber is an officer and director of Building a Better Legal Profession, which was founded by Stanford Law students in 2007. The organization uses innovative data advocacy and Web-based social entrepreneurship strategies to mobilize market pressure for workplace reforms in large law firms, including better working conditions, work-life policies, and increased racial and gender diversity. Currently Professor Dauber teaches Law and Wikinomics, which studies this issue.

Winner of the 2006 Walter J. Gores Award, Professor Dauber is only the second law professor to receive the highest teaching honor at Stanford University. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 2001, she was a clerk to Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Professor Dauber has an appointment (by courtesy) with the Stanford University Department of Sociology and is a faculty affiliate with the Stanford Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity.