Kristine Bowman
Professor of Law | Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI, UNITED STATES
Kristine Bowman is a leading education law scholar with expertise in free speech, racial/ethnic equity, and governance in education.
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Biography
Kristine Bowman is a jointly appointed as a Professor of Law and Professor of Education Policy at Michigan State University, where she has taught since 2007. She is also Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs in the College of Education where she provides strategic leadership for curriculum, advising, and accreditation.
From 2015-2018 Bowman was Vice/Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at MSU-Law, where she oversaw the curriculum of roughly 300 classes delivered by 50 full-time and 60 adjunct instructors to 700-800 students annually; led the College’s efforts to become academically integrated with MSU; and created and implemented new policies and programs on topics ranging from cross-listing select law courses, to faculty research and instructional support, to analyzing data related to bar exam success; to rethinking the College’s programming and presence in Detroit. In 2018 she was Senior Advisor to the Provost at MSU and in 2019 she was Visiting Professor of Political Science and Law at the University of Queensland.
Bowman is a leading education law scholar with expertise in free speech, racial/ethnic equity, and governance in in the K-12 and higher education contexts. She has published widely in prominent law reviews, journals for multi-disciplinary audiences, and edited volumes. In addition to presenting regularly throughout the country, Bowman has taught or lectured in nine countries.
Prior to teaching, Bowman practiced at Franczek Sullivan, P.C. (now Franczek Radelet), in Chicago, where she represented school districts, and clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. During law school she worked at the United States Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights. In 2001, Bowman graduated magna cum laude from the Duke University Law School, having served as both the Articles Editor of the Duke Law Journal and the Associate Executive Editor of the Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy. Bowman also holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Queensland; an M.A. in Humanities and Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from Duke University; and a B.A. summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Drake University.
Areas of Expertise (6)
Education Law and Policy
Free Speech
Ethnic Equity
Women’s Studies
Liberty and Equality
Governance
Education (4)
University of Queensland: Ph.D.
Duke University: J.D. 2001
Duke University: M.A. 2001
Drake University: B.A. 1998
Links (2)
News (3)
Ask the expert: Supreme Court affirmative action decision
Michigan State University online
2023-06-29
Today the U.S. Supreme Court decided that colleges and universities must stop considering race as part of their admissions decisions, a practice commonly known as affirmative action. Kristine Bowman, jointly appointed as a professor of law and professor of education policy at Michigan State University, answers questions about the case and decision.
MSU named in nation’s top-10 in four online master’s program areas
MSU College of Education online
2022-01-25
“The excellence in our online programs is an outgrowth of our college’s many areas of expertise and our university’s land grant mission,” said Kristine L. Bowman, associate dean for academic and student affairs. “These programs allow us to bring the most current developments in these areas to working professionals across the state and around the world.”
Bowman edits “Oxford Handbook on U.S. Education Law”
MSU College of Education online
2021-09-30
Kristine Bowman, a Michigan State University expert in education law and policy, is the editor of a comprehensive new handbook for K-12 educators, policymakers and scholars. The first-edition of the “Oxford Handbook on U.S. Education Law” includes foundational overviews, deep-rooted insights on various topics and a look toward the future.
Journal Articles (5)
The New Parents' Rights Movement, Education, and Equality
The University of Chicago Law Review2024 “The cultural debate heats up when the structure of American society appears to be in flux: moments of large-scale immigration (like the present), broad economic change (like the present), and shifting social relations (particularly when they involve changing racial or gender relations—again, like the present). Not surprisingly, contemporary politics reverberate with culture conflicts. The conflicts set off ancient anxieties.”
The (Re) Definition of Free Speech
Journal of Law & Politics2023 The largely unwritten civic constitution is shaped by legislators, judges, bureaucrats, and others including ordinary citizens and social movement groups. I contend that it is also shaped by college and university presidents when they speak publicly about constitutional values such as free speech. Over the past decade, college and university presidents have issued statements about free speech and other controversial matters with increasing frequency. In this article, I analyze how university presidents describe the concept of free speech to their campuses and thus engage in the work of constitutional development.
Exploring an Epistemic Conflict Over Free Speech on American College Campuses, and the Promise of the New Democratic Model
Nomos-Journal of Political and Legal Philosophy2022 Given the growing political polarization around the world, it is not surprising that scholars across disciplines are turning their attention once again to educational institutions, thinking deeply about how schools, colleges, and universities can help sustain and strengthen democracy. In this piece, I seek to answer the following questions: What view of the purpose (s) of the university does the current literature about free speech in colleges and universities use as its foundation? How does a particular view of the purpose of the university influence conceptions of free speech in campus contexts? And ultimately, how may different understandings of free speech relate to combatting polarization?
Balancing state and local power over school districts’ finances
Education Finance and Policy2022 During and for many years after the 2008–10 Great Recession, financial crises in districts across the country triggered varying state involvement in those districts’ finances and governance, up to and including complete takeover. While these actions were most prominent in a handful of states, all states have laws that enable them to intervene in school districts’ finances. These laws shape important governance relationships as well as the allocation of educational resources, yet we know very little about them. Accordingly, this policy brief reports our identification of 449 state statutory provisions across the country, which together contain 1049 potential interventions; our analysis of those provisions included identifying patterns, trends, and potential interactions with other areas of education policy.
Universities’ Speech and the First Amendment
Nebraska Law Review2021 Increasingly, scholars and students alike suggest that university leaders should engage in speech to oppose racism and other systemic discrimination. In May and June of 2020, countless university leaders across the country did exactly that, expressing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. That speech also contained implied answers to two questions: normatively, should a public university speak in this way, and legally, can it do so? Developing a robust answer to the second question is the focus of this Article, which brings together political scientist Corey Brettschneider’s conceptualization of government speech as persuasive or coercive; federal constitutional law (forum analysis doctrine and government speech doctrine); and recent changes in state law regarding free speech at public colleges and universities.
