An employment law scholar at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law has been honored for her remarkable contributions to the field.
Deborah A. Widiss, professor of law and the John F. Kimberling Chair, was presented the Miller Award at the 19th annual Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law (COSELL) in San Diego on September 13.
Named in honor of the late Paul Miller, who was the Henry M. Jackson Professor of Law at the University of Washington School of Law, the Miller Award is presented annually to a senior scholar who has shown “outstanding academic and public contributions to the field of labor and employment scholarship.”
The award was presented by Orly Lobel, Warren Distinguished Professor of Law and director of the Center for Employment and Labor Policy at the University of San Diego School of Law.
“Deborah embodies the best of all aspects of our academic path: a deep scholar with both theoretical sophistication and policy impact, a generous colleague and institutional leader, and an excellent teacher,” Lobel said. “She has conducted insightful research using comparative law to illuminate the deficiencies in American employment anti-discrimination and family leave laws and continues to be an inspiration for all of us in the employment and labor law scholarly community.”
Widiss joined the IU Maurer School of Law faculty in 2009. Her research and teaching focuses on employment law, family law, statutory interpretation, and the significance of gender and gender stereotypes in the development of law and government policy.
“This is a well-deserved honor for Professor Widiss,” said Indiana Law Dean Christiana Ochoa. “Her work continues to inspire students, scholars, and policymakers alike, and we are so glad the Colloquium has recognized her scholarship and service to labor and employment law communities around the world.”
Before transitioning to academia, Widiss was an attorney at Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund), where she was a national expert on the intersection between domestic violence and employment. She continues to work with national and Indiana-based advocacy organizations to enact and enforce employment laws supporting pregnant workers, parents, and other family caregivers.
The Miller Award is the latest in a long line of recognition for Widiss’s contributions to the field.
In 2018, she received a Fulbright Senior Scholar grant to study Australia’s paid parental leave program as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Melbourne Law School. She has won the Association of American Law Schools Outstanding Scholarly Paper Award, recognizing the best paper submitted by a junior faculty member at an AALS-member law school; two separate Dukeminier Awards, recognizing the best law review article on sexual orientation published in the previous year; and the Feldman Award, recognizing a peer-reviewed journal article that makes a significant social policy contribution related to gender in families. She has also received two Indiana University Trustees’ Teaching awards.
Widiss has also served as chair of the AALS Employment Discrimination Section and as a member of the executive committee of the AALS Legislation Section.
At the Maurer School of Law she served as associate dean for research and faculty affairs from 2019-23 and as the Ira C. Batman Faculty Fellow from 2016-23.