The following are among the new faculty members at the University. Others will be introduced periodically in this space.
Katherine Y. Barnes, J.D., joins the School of Law as associate professor. Barnes is an expert on statistical evidence and forms of proof, including a recent study on racial profiling and traffic stops in the state of Maryland. Her professional interests also span discrimination law, labor and employment law, civil procedure and criminal procedure. Barnes has written on the relationship between crime rates and American attitudes toward the death penalty, and on deterrence and the death penalty. Barnes earned a law degree in 2000 from the University of Michigan Law School, where she was article editor and executive editor of the Michigan Journal of Law Reform.
Peter S. Hovmand, Ph.D., joins the George Warren Brown School of Social Work as assistant professor. He earned a master’s degree in social work and an interdisciplinary doctorate in social science from Michigan State University (MSU). Before coming to Washington University, Hovmand was an instructor and a male outreach coordinator for MSU’s “Safe Place.” His teaching interests include system dynamics, research methods, human behavior in social environments and social work and oppression. His research focuses on domestic violence, system dynamics and “flight simulators” for social work.
Tomiko Brown-Nagin, J.D., Ph.D., joins the Department of History in Arts & Sciences and the School of Law as associate professor. Brown-Nagin is an expert in legal and social history and in constitutional law. Her research and teaching interests span legal ethics, complex litigation and labor and employment relations. Brown-Nagin has published in journals including the Duke Law Journal, Law and Inequality, Women’s History Review and the Journal of Law and Education, on topics such as women’s activism and social change, school finance, charter school litigation and affirmative action in higher education. Brown-Nagin earned a law degree in 1997 from Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the law journal.
Steven J. Gunn, J.D., joins the School of Law as an associate professor. Gunn, who has extensive experience in public interest litigation and clinical practice, most recently co-taught three clinics at Yale Law School. In these clinics, he instructed and supervised law students in the representation of low-income individuals in judicial and administrative actions in numerous areas of substantive law, including consumer protection, housing, public benefits and civil rights. He also taught a doctrinal course on federal Indian law. At Washington University, Gunn will teach in the Civil Justice Clinic, as well as doctrinal courses on property and federal Indian law. Gunn earned a law degree from Yale University in 1995.