University Distinguished Professor Sarah Deer will highlight advocacy in lecture that examines tribal statutes on sexual violence

LAWRENCE — In her inaugural Distinguished Professor Lecture at the University of Kansas, acclaimed lawyer, advocate and scholar Sarah Deer will amplify sexual violence survivors' voices and the relation to tribal statutes.

The lecture, titled, “What If Survivors Wrote the Laws? An Exploration of Tribal Statutes on Sexual Violence,” will take place at 5:30 p.m. March 4 in the Malott Room at the Kansas Union.

Individuals can register to attend the lecture, and a recording of the lecture will be posted afterward on the Office of Faculty Affairs website.

Deer focuses her scholarship on the intersection of federal Indian law and victims' rights, relying on Indigenous feminist principles as a guiding framework. Her 2015 award-winning book, "The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America," is a culmination of over 25 years of working with survivors, and it highlights the common thread of advocacy work throughout her scholarship.

Her lecture will share the results of her forthcoming publication based on a comprehensive review of tribal nations’ sexual assault statutes and illuminate potential frameworks for addressing sexual assault in tribal courts by employing Indigenous feminist legal theories about consent and sexual autonomy.

“My research shows that tribal criminal laws tend to be unaffected by rape law reform efforts in the 1990s,” Deer said. “Because Native people suffer the highest rates of sexual assault in the United States, my research is intended to support the reform of tribal statutes to ensure that tribal prosecutors have the tools needed to prosecute sexual assault."

Deer is a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma. Her advocacy work to end violence against Native women has earned her national recognition, including awards from the American Bar Association and the Department of Justice. She has testified before Congress on four occasions and was appointed to chair a federal advisory committee on sexual violence in Indian country. Deer was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow in 2014 and was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2019. She has co-written four textbooks on tribal law, and her work has been published in numerous law journals.

Deer holds a joint appointment at KU in the departments of Indigenous Studies and Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies, as well as a courtesy appointment with the School of Law. She earned both her bachelor’s degree and juris doctor from KU.