Andrea J Martin

Andrea J. Martin is an Assistant Professor of Law and a recipient of the Penn State Dickinson Law Phillip M. Scott Teaching Excellence Award. Her research encompasses constitutional law, anti-discrimination law, and the study of historical and contemporary antisemitism. Through her scholarship in the emerging field of Jewish Law and Policy, she develops legal frameworks and advances strategies to influence legal, governmental, and institutional policies to combat antizionism and other contemporary forms of Jew-hatred and protect civil rights.

Professor Martin’s scholarship has been published in leading journals, including the Yale Law & Policy Review, Brooklyn Law Review, Boston University Law Review online, and Pepperdine Law Review. She has been invited to present her research related to Antisemitism and the Law at several organizations and law schools, including the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, Maurice A. Dean School of Law at Hofstra University, and Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law.

Before entering academia, Professor Martin served in Rhode Island as a Special Assistant Attorney General in the Appellate Division, where she argued cases before the RI Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the District of RI, and the First Circuit Court of Appeals. She also served in the Rhode Island Governor’s Commission on Prejudice and Bias, where she drafted state hate crime legislation and advised state police forces on bias-related prosecutions. She also worked as a strategic legal advisor in the corporate sector for twelve years.

Professor Martin currently serves on the Steering Committee for the Law and Antisemitism Conference, is a Board Member of Penn State Hillel, and a member of the Holocaust Claims Conference Faculty Working Group. Professor Martin is also the co-founder of a new venture – the Center for Jewish Law and Policy, which advances legal frameworks to combat anti-Zionism and Jew-hatred through legal scholarship, education, and professional collaboration. Dedicated to bridging scholarship and practice, Professor Martin actively partners with governmental and non-governmental agencies to develop legal policies and initiatives that strengthen protections against antisemitism and to advance Jewish civil rights worldwide.
She is also faculty advisor for the Jewish Law Students Association, the Penn State Dickinson Law Moot Court Team, and the Native American Law School Association. She has also taught in the CLEO (Council on Legal Education Opportunity) program to increase the number of lawyers from diverse backgrounds and served on the boards of many nonprofit and community organizations, including Temple Sinai, YMCA, Caritas House, and Pink Out Women’s Cancer Fund.

Professor Martin received her J.D. from Howard University School of Law, M.B.A. from Suffolk University, and B.A. in History from the University of Rhode Island. Her interests and hobbies include history and writing.