Michelle Madden Dempsey
Associate Professor of Law
Biography
Michelle Madden Dempsey joined Villanova in 2009 as an Associate Professor, after teaching at Oxford University, where she was a University Lecturer in Law and Tutorial Fellow. Professor Dempsey teaches and writes in the areas of criminal law, feminist legal theory, and jurisprudence. Her writings have been published in University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Modern Law Review, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Theoretical Criminology, and Criminal Law Review. Her book, Prosecuting Domestic Violence: A Philosophical Analysis, published by Oxford University Press in 2009, was awarded second prize in the UK’s Society of Legal Scholars Peter Birks Award for Outstanding Legal Scholarship. Professor Dempsey received her B.A. from the University of Illinois, her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, her LL.M. from the London School of Economics, and her D. Phil. (Ph.D.) from Oxford University. She is an editor of the multidisciplinary, international journal,
Criminal Law & Philosophy. Following law school, she worked as a prosecutor in the Champaign (Illinois) County State's Attorney's Office and later as a civil trial lawyer in Chicago. She was a tutor in law at University College London before joining the Oxford faculty in 2005. At Villanova, she teaches Criminal Law, Evidence, and Feminist Legal Theory.
