Debran Rowland

Debran Rowland is a former journalist, an attorney, and a legal writer who has won awards in both her professional and academic lives. A graduate of Carleton College with a degree in English, an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Columbia University, and a J.D. from the School of Law at Loyola University of Chicago, Debran Rowland has proved herself an innovative thinker capable of reviewing history—even well-trod history—with an original eye. Publisher's Weekly called 2004's “The Boundaries of Her Body: The Troubling History of Women's Rights in America,” Ms. Rowland's first book, a "masterful treatise." Kirkus Reviews revered it as an "indispensable source book for courses in women's studies," and the late Betty Friedan, author of “The Feminine Mystique,” which many people believe was the catalyst for the women's rights movement, offered that "Debran Rowland brilliantly argues the continuing inequality of women's rights in America with the most meticulous and comprehensive research of our times." As a journalist, Debran Rowland has received the Robert L. Vann award for Best Print News Series while at the New Pittsburgh Courier and the Best News Feature from the Chicago Association of Black Journalists while at the Chicago Tribune. Debran Rowland was the recipient of the Corpus Juris Secundum and American Jurisprudence awards in Civil Procedure while a student in law school and the Leadership and Service Award from Loyola University of Chicago, School of Law. In 2005, Debran Rowland was awarded the Innovative Attorney Award from that school's Black Law Student Association. While she was a law student, Debran Rowland served as Chief Lead Articles Editor of the Loyola Consumer Law Reporter (now Loyola Consumer Law Review) and a student writer for the Illinois Bar Journal as well as on the Frederick Douglas Moot Court Team. In addition to “The Boundaries of Her Body,” Ms. Rowland's legal publications include “What Constitutes Agricultural or Farm Labor within the Social Security or Unemployment Compensation Acts,” published in American Law Reports (5th Series) Vol. 60 (1998), pp. 459-645; “Sovereignty in Indian Country: The Myth and the Reality,” published in the Loyola University School of Law Public Interest Report, Vol. 1, No. 3 (1996), pp. 17-32; and “The Difficulty of Defining an Effective Requirement of Character and Fitness,” published in the Illinois Bar Examiner, Vol. 64, No. 3 (1995), pp. 16-48. A diligent researcher, Debran Rowland also brings cha