Freshman class

Victims' advocate

Maritza Karmely, assistant clinical professor of law

JD, Boston University School of Law

Representative publication: "Immigration and Constitutional Consequences of Post-9/11 Policies Involving Arabs and Muslims in the United States: Is Alienage a Distinction without a Difference?" (with Susan M. Akram) U.C. Davis Law Review

Growing up the daughter of immigrant parents in Massachusetts, I developed an understanding of how power works to exclude and silence people in an unequal society. I learned that marginalized people need help to have their voices heard. Awareness of the importance of advocacy led me to law school and, eventually, to work with immigrant victims of violence, focusing on public policy issues pertaining to indigent people. Before coming to BC, most of my work in this field was as a staff attorney at Casa Myrna Vazquez, a domestic violence agency in Boston that provides services to abused women and their children.

I continue to work with underrepresented victims of violence in my capacity as a supervising professor of Boston College?s Legal Advocacy Bureau. My research explores areas of law and policy that protect survivors of violence and their children. Currently, I am exploring how contemporary social movements affect child custody legislation in the context of domestic violence.