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Social Sciences Division
Politics Department
Legal Studies
Assistant Teaching Professor
Faculty
Regular Faculty
Merrill/Crown Faculty Services
Elspeth M. Wilson joined the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2026 as Assistant Teaching Professor of Legal Studies in the Politics Department and Legal Studies Program. Previously, she was Assistant Professor of Government at Franklin & Marshall College.
Her research and teaching focus on U.S. citizenship, civil rights and liberties, constitutional law and interpretation, immigration law, reproductive law, and American political development. She is particularly interested in civic inequality and how law and public policy shape political membership, rights, and democratic inclusion. Her current research develops the concept of a 'civic lineage regime' to examine how laws and judicial decisions regulating Americans’ intimate lives, from marriage and family to reproduction, have created and reinforced hierarchies of citizenship involving race, gender, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, and sexuality. She also studies teaching and learning in the age of generative AI.
Wilson’s early work in civil liberties included a fellowship supporting an internship at the national headquarters of the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as work investigating allegations of police misconduct and brutality for New York City. She has also published on ethical and public policy questions concerning astrobiology and space exploration, presented work on the ethics of astrobiology at the Library of Congress, and participated in legal and policy workshops on planetary protection.
Wilson received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania, her MA in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and her BA with honors in Political Science from Columbia University.
U.S. Citizenship Law and Politics; Civil Rights and Civil Liberties; Immigration Law and Policy; Reproductive Law and Politics; American Political Development; Conservative Constitutionalism and Its Critics; Judicial Politics; Civic Inequality and Democratic Inclusion; Ethics and Public Policy of Astrobiology and Space Exploration; Teaching and Learning in the Age of Generative AI
Constitutional Law and Interpretation; Culture Wars and the Constitution; Civil Rights and Civil Liberties; U.S. Citizenship Law and Politics; Immigration Law and Policy; Reproductive Rights and Wrongs; The First Amendment; Voting Rights and Election Law; The Reconstruction Amendments and Their Contemporary Legacies; Antidiscrimination Law and Equal Protection; Due Process; American Political Development; Legal Ethics; Space Law and Policy
Highlights include the Curriculum Innovation Grants (Franklin & Marshall College), Benjamin Franklin Fellowship (University of Pennsylvania), and Boies Family Fellowship (Penn Program on Democracy, Citizenship, and Constitutionalism).
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