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Kirsten Matoy Carlson

Kirsten Matoy Carlson

Professor of Law, Adjunct Professor of Political Science

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Room 3243

Kirsten Matoy Carlson

  • Biography

    Kirsten Matoy Carlson is a Professor of Law at Wayne State University and a Faculty Scholar in the ABF/JPB Access to Justice Scholars Program. She is a Marilyn Williamson Endowed Distinguished Faculty Fellow in the Humanities Center at Wayne State University for 2023-2024. Dr. Carlson is a leading authority on federal Indian law. Her interdisciplinary, empirical research investigates access to justice issues, including legal mobilization and law reform strategies used by Native peoples to reform law and policy effectively. Her work seeks to elevate Native voices in their quest for justice within the legal system. It has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Levin Center at Wayne Law. Her numerous articles have appeared in student-edited law reviews, such as the Michigan Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, Indiana Law Journal, and Washington Law Review, and peer-reviewed interdisciplinary and political science journals, such as Law and Society Review, Publius—The Journal of Federalism, and the Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics. Her article, Lobbying Against the Odds, was selected for presentation at the Yale/Stanford/Harvard Junior Faculty Forum at Harvard Law School. She has appeared on National Public Radio and Michigan Public Radio.

    In 2019-2020, she held a Career Development Chair, which honors outstanding research faculty at Wayne State University. From May 2014 through July 2019, she served as the Principal Investigator on a National Science Foundation Law and Social Science Program grant. During 2017-2018, she was one of two inaugural Levin Center Research Scholars. In 2016-2017, she received the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award from the Wayne State Academy of Scholars. Prior to joining the Law School in 2011, Carlson received a National Science Foundation dissertation research grant to study the constitutional entrenchment of Aboriginal and treaty rights in Canada and a Fulbright scholarship to research attitudes toward the Waitangi Tribunal and the treaty claims settlement process in New Zealand. She has also served as a visiting research scholar at the University of Ottawa and a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Minnesota Law School.

    Dr. Carlson teaches federal Indian law, civil procedure, legislation and legal change. She received the Donald H. Gordon Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2014 and was selected by students as the Professor of the Year, First Year, in 2017 and 2023.
    Dr. Carlson brings a range of professional and academic experience to her teaching and research. She serves on the State Bar of Michigan Standing Committee on American Indian Law and is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Prior to joining Wayne Law, she advocated nationally and internationally to protect the rights of Indian nations as a staff attorney at the Indian Law Resource Center. She led the center's advocacy efforts to restore criminal jurisdiction to Indian nations to end violence against women in Indian Country. She also clerked for the Hon. Diana E. Murphy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
    Dr. Carlson earned her law degree cum laude and a doctorate in political science from the University of Michigan, a master of arts degree with distinction in Maaori studies from the University of Wellington, New Zealand, and a bachelor of arts degree in international studies from The Johns Hopkins University.

     

  • Degrees and Certifications

    Ph.D., University of Michigan
    J.D., University of Michigan Law School
    M.A., Victoria University in New Zealand
    B.A., The Johns Hopkins University

  • Courses Taught

    Civil Procedure A
    Civil Procedure B
    American Indian Law
    Legislation
    Legal Change

  • Homepage URL
    http://www.congressandindians.org/
  • Selected publications

    Rethinking Legislative Advocacy, 80 Md. L. Rev. 960 (2021)

    Lobbying Against the Odds, 56 Harv. J. on Legis. 23 (2019) (Selected for the 2018 Yale/Stanford/Harvard Junior Faculty Forum)

    Lobbying as a Strategy for Tribal Resilience, 2018 BYU L. Rev. 1159 (2018)

    Congress, Tribal Recognition, and Legislative-Administrative Multiplicity, 91 Ind. L. Rev. 955 (2016)

    Congress and Indians, 86 U. Colo. L. Rev. 77 (2015)

    Political Failure, Judicial Opportunity: The Supreme Court of Canada and Aboriginal and Treaty Rights, 44 American Review of Canadian Studies 334 (2014) (peer-reviewed)

    Jurisdiction and Human Rights Accountability in Indian Country, Mich. St. L. Rev. 355 (2013)

    Priceless Property, 29 Ga. St. U. L. Rev 685 (2013)

    "Natural Allies: Conservationists, Indian Tribes, and Protecting Native North America," in Sarah Krakoff and Ezra Rosser, Eds., Tribes, Land, and the Environment (2012) (with Robert T. Coulter)

    Does Constitutional Change Matter? Canada's Recognition of Aboriginal Title, 22 Ariz. J. Int’l & Comp. L 449 (2005) (distributed to more than 1,000 practitioners and scholars at the 2010 Federal Bar Association Indian Law Conference)

    Note, Towards Tribal Sovereignty and Judicial Efficiency: Ordering the Defenses of Tribal Sovereign Immunity and Exhaustion of Tribal Remedies, 101 Mich. L. Rev. 569 (2002) (second place, National Native American Law Students Association Annual Writing Competition)

  • Publications and Conference Papers

    Steve Bannon Faces Criminal Charges over Jan. 6 Panel Snub, Setting Up a Showdown over Executive Privliege, The Conversation (2021).

    Bay Mills President’s Indian Affairs Appointment Will Transform Relationships, Detroit Free Press (2021).

    House Committee Investigating Capitol Insurrection has a Lot of Power But It’s Unclear It Can Force Trump to Testify, The Conversation (2021).

    Invited Presentation, “A Discussion of Firekeeper’s Daughter and Domestic Violence and Criminal Jurisdiction on Tribal Land,” Michigan Indian Legal Services, (2021)

    Panel Presentation, “Diplomacy as Representation: Congress, Indian Nations, and Legislative Success,” American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, (2021)

     

  • Social Science Research Network
    View SSRN Profile
  • Accomplishments
    • Kirsten Carlson contributed an article in The Conversation, Detroit Legal News, "Supreme Court Rejects Trump's Blocking of Jan. 6 Docs: 3 Key Takeaways from Ruling."
    • Kirsten Matoy Carlson's Beyond Descriptive Representation: American Indian Opposition to Federal Legislation was accepted for publication at the Journal of Race and Ethnic Politics.
    • Kirsten Matoy Carlson was a guest speaker for "A Discussion of 'Firekeeper's Daughter' and Domestic Violence and Criminal Jurisdiction on Tribal Land." The event was hosted by Michigan Legal Indian Services and United Three Fires Against Violence.
    • Kirsten Matoy Carlson presented at the 2019 NLADA Annual Conference – Innovative Justice in Detroit on Nov. 8. She discussed “2019 Reauthorization of VAWA: What’s At Stake for Native American and Alaska Native Communities.”
    • Kirsten Matoy Carlson was a recipient of a 2019-20 Career Development Chair Award from Wayne State University. The university’s award program supports outstanding tenured faculty members in the early stages of their careers.
    • Kirsten Matoy Carlson wrote “Judge Murphy’s Indian Law Legacy” for the Minnesota Law Review.
    • Kirsten Matoy Carlson’s paper “Lobbying as a Strategy for Tribal Resilience” was accepted for publication in the Brigham Young University Law Review.
    • Kirsten Matoy Carlson  spoke at a memorial session in honor of Judge Diana E. Murphy of the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 18.
    • Kirsten Matoy Carlson has been named an inaugural Levin Center Research Scholar. The research award will be presented on an annual basis to a member of the Wayne Law faculty in an effort to support scholarship central to the mission of the Levin Center at Wayne Law. Read more. 
    • Kirsten Matoy Carlson  has been invited to participate in the Yale/Stanford/Harvard Junior Faculty Forum at Harvard Law School on June 13-14, 2018. Carlson will present her paper, “Lobbying Against the Odds,” which is forthcoming in the Harvard Journal on Legislation. Read more.
    • Kirsten Matoy Carlson  was a speaker at the Politics of Race, Immigration, and Ethnicity Consortium at the University of New Mexico. She discussed “Opposition as Influence: American Indian Advocacy Against Federal Legislation.”
    • Kirsten Carlson’s latest research “Making Strategic Choices: How and Why Indian Groups Advocated for Federal Recognition from 1977 to 2012” reveals that a dynamic interplay of goals, motivations, and constraints influence groups to different strategies over time. Read more
  • Recent courses taught

    Fall Term 2024 (current)

    Winter Term 2024

    Winter Term 2023

    Fall Term 2022

    Winter Term 2022

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