Jennifer A. Drobac has been a professor at the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis since 2001 and also currently serves on the Kaiser Family Foundation Board of Trustees. In 2005, Professor Drobac finished her first textbook, Sexual Harassment Law: History, Cases and Theory. She was named a John S. Grimes Fellow in 2006-07 and a Dean’s Fellow in recognition of scholarly excellence in 2005-2006. Professor Drobac also received the 2005 Indiana University Trustees’ Teaching Award.
Professor Drobac answered these questions for Feminist Law Professors.
FLP: What is your educational and professional background?
JAD: I have four academic degrees from Stanford University (BA 1981, MA & JD 1987, JSD 2000). I clerked for a federal district court judge after an educational trip around the world. A couple of years later I opened my own law practice. I began full time teaching in 2001 and just received tenure and promotion to full professor.
FLP: What courses do you teach?
JAD: Sexual Harassment Law, AIDS Law, Family Law & Juvenile Law
FLP: How does feminism influence your teaching/scholarship/service?
JAD: This question is like asking how breathing influences my work. Feminism makes my existence in this life possible. Feminism made my entry into this field possible; it gives me perspectives that permeate my scholarship; and it causes me to engage– whether teaching or serving– in a way that is both nurturing and powerful.
FLP: Has feminism reached the limits of what it can accomplish via the law? Should feminists focus on issues other than the law (i.e., culture, youth education, etc.)?
JAD: Absolutely not, feminism can accomplish much more via the law (and must)! For example, we need many more feminists (either male, female, or trans) on the Supreme Court to interpret the law in ways that adequately recognize the constitutional and federal civil rights of women and feminine persons. Moreover, feminists must influence culture, education, the media, and politics– as well as the law– to further enlighten all avenues concerning equality, difference, tolerance, and unity.
FLP: What are you working on now?
JAD: Being a feminist of whom I can be proud.
– Bridget Crawford and Amanda Kissel
