Anna Lvovsky ’13, a scholar of criminal law and procedure, constitutional law, and evidence, will join the Harvard Law School faculty as an assistant professor in July. Lvovsky is currently an academic fellow at Columbia Law School. Her research focuses on the legal and cultural dimensions of policing, judicial uses of professional knowledge, and the regulation of gender, sexuality, and morality.
“With a book on its way to publication and several articles, Anna has demonstrated superb abilities to investigate, analyze, and make sense of complex practices at the intersection of criminal procedure, constitutional rights, gender, and sexuality,” said Martha Minow, Dean of Harvard Law School. “It is a special delight to welcome this alumna back to Harvard Law School, and we all eagerly look forward to her ongoing efforts to connect developments in society, governmental practice, and legal regulation.”
Her forthcoming book, Queer Expertise: Urban Policing and the Discovery of the Gay World, 1920-1970 (under contract with the University of Chicago Press), examines how police departments, scientific experts, and the media shaped perceptions of gay men in the United States. It stems from her dissertation, which received the 2016 Julien Mezey Dissertation Award from the Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities.
Lvovsky also has soon-to-be-published articles in the Harvard Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and the Journal of Urban History.
“It is an incredible honor to return to the institution that first taught me to love the law,” Lvovsky said. “Both the faculty and the students at HLS gave me so much in my years as a student here, and I am thrilled to rejoin, and do my part in giving back to, this incredible community.”
Lvovsky clerked for Judge Michael Boudin ’64 of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and for Gerard Lynch of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She received a Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization from Harvard University in 2015. Lvovsky graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was articles co-chair of the Harvard Law Review. She was also the recipient of the LGBTQ Writing Prize. She is a 2007 graduate of Yale University, summa cum laude.