Jennifer Mason McAward is an associate professor of law and director of the Center for Civil and Human Rights.

As director of one of the 7 international academic units within the Keough School, she is a member of the Keough School’s Leadership Council.

McAward’s teaching and research interests focus on civil rights, constitutional law, and habeas corpus. Her scholarship considers how government institutions and actors promote individual constitutional rights. She has researched the power of Congress to enforce the Thirteenth Amendment and has studied the United States Commission on Civil Rights, focusing on the role of Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. in advancing civil rights reforms. her current research focuses on how judicial and executive actors can incentivize police and prosecutors to respect the pre-trial due process rights of criminal defendants.

McAward joined the law school faculty in 2005 and was named Distinguished Professor of the Year in 2007. She earned her J.D. summa cum laude in 1998 from New York University School of Law, where she was managing editor of the law review. She graduated summa cum laude from Notre Dame in 1994, majoring in government and earning a minor in theology.

Following law school, McAward clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski on the Ninth Circuit and then for United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. She practiced law and completed a public service fellowship with Holland & Knight LLP in Washington, D.C.

Located at The Aquarium in the Huntington Center (Jefferson and Huron).