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I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Virginia and have taught at the University of Virginia and at James Madison College (Michigan State University). I am the recipient of two Fulbright scholarships, teaching law and political science at the University of Zagreb, Croatia and criminal law at the Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. I have also lectured on constitutional law at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, on political violence at the University of Graz (Faculties of Law and Social Sciences), and taught American Politics and Law at Palacky University, the Czech Republic.

My research interests are in constitutional law and jurisprudence, free speech, democratic theory, psychology and law, modern political philosophy and the history of the social sciences.

I am the author of three books:

- Democracy and Deliberation: The Law and Politics of Sex Offender Legislation (University of Michigan Press, 2021).

- The Assassination of William McKinley: Anarchism, Insanity, and the Birth of the Social Sciences (Lexington Books, 2018).

- The Body and the State: Habeas Corpus and American Jurisprudence (SUNY Press, 2006).

Of The Assassination of William McKinley: Anarchism, Insanity, and the Birth of the Social Sciences, Mark Summers writes:

“As a study of experts misapplying their own specialties to understand a sick, sad man about whom even a real name and birthdate elude capture, The Assassination of William McKinley hits the spot....Federman explores the intellectual bases of so many of the new professions at the turn of the last century with sophistication and with an enviable control of the literature. No one hailing the rise of professionalism in Gilded Age and Progressive America should turn away from this book and its cautionary tale.” Mark Summers, The Historian.

Of Democracy and Deliberation: The Law and Politics of Sex Offender Legislation, Joseph Bessette writes:

“Federman provides a thorough review and analysis of the legal and constitutional issues involved in sex offender legislation. Such a comprehensive treatment of this important dimension of criminal and civil law is well overdue.”
—Joseph M. Bessette, Alice Tweed Tuohy Professor of Government and Ethics at Claremont McKenna College.

And Richard Weisman writes:

“an audacious, thought-provoking contribution to the very fraught literature on sex offender legislation.”
—Richard Weisman, York University

I am currently working on a book-length manuscript on free speech and censorship.

Specialization

Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence, American Political Thought, Modern Political Theory, Free Speech, Democratic Theory, Theories of Punishment and Capital Punishment, Political Violence, Criminal Law, and Law and Insanity.

Office Hours

Fall

Monday

10:00 am - 11:00 am

Thursday

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Spring

Monday

10:00 am - 11:00 am

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Wednesday

11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Thursday

10:00 am - 11:00 am

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Links

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• Rowman & Littlefield
• SUNY Press
• Academia
• University of Michigan Press