- Email:
- ithusi@iu.edu
- Phone:
- (812) 855-0156
- Location:
- Baier Hall 311C
Education
- Emory University, BA
- Fordham University School of Law, JD cum laude
- University of Witwatersrand, PhD, Social Anthropology and Law and Society
Courses
- Criminal Procedure
- Criminal Law
- Critical Race Theory
- Regulation of Vice
Biography
Professor Thusi is a Professor of Law at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law with a joint appointment at the Kinsey Institute. Her research examines racial and sexual hierarchies as they relate to policing, race, and gender. Her articles and essays have been published or are forthcoming in the Harvard Law Review, NYU Law Review, Northwestern Law Review (twice), Georgetown Law Journal, Cornell Law Review Online, amongst others.
Thusi’s research is inextricably connected to her previous legal experience at organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and—most recently—The Opportunity Agenda, a social justice communication lab that collaborates to effect lasting policy and culture change. She served as a federal law clerk to two social justice giants: the Honorable Robert L. Carter, who sat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and was the lead counsel for the NAACP in Brown v. Board of Education; and the Honorable Damon J. Keith, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and is lauded for his prominent civil rights jurisprudence. She also clerked for Justice van der Westhuizen at the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the country’s highest court.
Among other acknowledgements throughout her career, Thusi was selected as a Fulbright U.S. Global Scholar for 2020-2023. Her paper “Reality Porn” was selected for the 2020 Stanford/Harvard/Yale Junior Faculty Forum, and she was recognized as a Top 40 Rising Young Lawyer by the American Bar Association in 2019. Her most recent paper was selected for the 2021 Equality Law Scholars Workshop
In the Media
- Mentioned in "MLK lecture: Encourage democracy, fight suppression," Cornell Chronicle (2/21/2024)
- Appeared on "Sex Work, Critical Race Theory, and Moral Progress," Skeptic Magazine (12/6/2022)
- Quoted in "Euphoria's Sydney Sweeney hits back at 'absurd' backlash after 'Blue Lives Matter' claims," Pink News (8/30/2022)
- Quoted in "'The worst-case scenario': what IU experts have to say about a post-Roe world," Indiana Daily Student (6/27/2022)
- Quoted in "Indiana lawmakers expected to take up abortion law during special session next week," WDRB News (6/27/2022)
- Quoted in "A #MeToo Crisis for Incarcerated Girls," The Crime Report (6/14/2022)
Areas of expertise
- Criminal law
- Criminal procedure
- Feminist legal theory
- Police violence