Education:
J.D., Howard University
B.A., East Texas State University

Associate Dean Carla Pratt is nationally recognized as a scholar of race and the law who lectures at academic venues across the country. Her research, which employs Critical Race Theory, explores how law often unintentionally operates to perpetuate the subordination of racial minorities rather than achieve true equality. Her most recent works examine the legal construction of Native American identity as an Africanless identity. Prior to joining our faculty in 2000, Dean Pratt served as a New Jersey Deputy Attorney General in the civil practice division and engaged in private practice as a commercial litigator with Drinker, Biddle & Reath LLP in Philadelphia. She teaches or has taught courses in Race, Racism and American Law, Equal Protection and Civil Rights, Professional Responsibility and Contracts.

Contact Information:
Associate Dean Email: associatedeans@dsl.psu.edu


Selected Publications:
"Loving, Indian Style: Maintaining Racial Caste and Tribal Sovereignty Through Sexual Assimilation," Wisconsin Law Review, 2007.

"Tribes and Tribulations: Beyond Sovereign Immunity and Toward Reparation and Reconciliation for the Estelusti," Washington & Lee Race Ethnic Ancestry Law Journal, 2005.

"Tribal Kulturkampf: The Role of Race Ideology in Constructing Native American Identity," Seton Hall Law Review, 2005.

"Should Klansmen Be Lawyers?: Racism as an Ethical Barrier to the Legal Profession,"
Florida State Law Review, 2003.

"In the Wake of Hopwood: An Update on Affirmative Action in the Education Arena," Howard
Law Journal, 1999.