Filmed on 13 February 2020 as part of TEDxUTK 2020 Opening the Door at the Ken and Blaire Mossman Auditorium in Knoxville, TN.

Presented at our event on 13 February 2020. Video coming soon.

Professor Valorie K. Vojdik is the Waller Lansden Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee College of Law. She currently teaches civil rights, gender and the law, civil procedure, and federal courts. From 2011-2015, she served as Director of Clinical Programs and taught in the Advocacy and Appellate Clinics.

Professor Vojdik began teaching in 1994 at New York University School of Law in its Lawyering Program and then taught at Western New England College School of Law. She has taught as a visiting professor at the University of Richmond and guest lectured as a research scholar at the University of Cape Town. Before coming to Tennessee, she taught at West Virginia University College of Law as a Professor of Law while also serving as Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Deputy Director of its Clinical Program.

Professor Vojdik graduated from Brown University magna cum laude and received her J.D. degree from New York University School of Law. Prior to joining the legal academy, Professor Vojdik worked as a litigation associate at Shearman & Sterling in New York City. She served as lead counsel to Shannon Faulkner and other women who successfully challenged the males-only admission policy of the Citadel in South Carolina in federal court. She has litigated numerous cases involving sex discrimination and civil rights, in both state and federal court.

Professor Vojdik’s teaching and research focus on gender and the law, civil and human rights, and social institutions. Her recent scholarship addresses masculinities theory, international women’s rights, and sexual violence against men and women in war. Professor Vojdik is actively engaged in civil and human rights work. She is a member of the Tennessee State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. She has worked twice as a consultant to the European Union’s Seyada Project to empower the Palestinian judicial system. Since 2007, she has taught and consulted for the Open Society Foundation in its Network Scholarship and Civil Society Leadership Awards programs.