Emma Shakeshaft (UW Law ’12), formerly a senior staff attorney and researcher at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin, has been selected as the 2025 William H. Hastie Fellow.
Shakeshaft is a Triple Badger: After earning her J.D. in 2012, she pursued sociology, earning a master’s degree in 2014 and a Ph.D. in 2017. She has also served as a doctoral fellow at the American Bar Foundation in Chicago and a postdoctoral fellow at the Newcomb College Institute at Tulane University.
At the ACLU, Shakeshaft focused on impact litigation and research on constitutional rights within the criminal legal system. Her work spans various civil rights issues, including policing, poverty, and incarceration. Last semester, before her selection as Hastie Fellow, Shakeshaft developed and taught a course at UW Law entitled Constitutional Rights and Criminal Justice.
The University of Wisconsin Law School’s Hastie Fellowship has provided aspiring scholars with an outstanding opportunity to prepare for a career in law teaching since 1973. It honors civil rights advocate William H. Hastie (1904-1976) and was established through the leadership of legendary UW Law School Professor Jim Jones (1924-2014).
The two-year fellowship reflects UW Law’s commitment to expanding opportunities to enter law teaching for people embodying a wide range of backgrounds, identities, experiences and perspectives. Over the decades, the Hastie Fellowship has provided a launching pad for dozens of outstanding law professors, law deans and other leaders in the legal profession.
Fellows pursue a scholarly agenda of their choice, typically prepare two pieces for publication, and receive mentoring in their teaching and scholarship. The fellowship also provides practice opportunities for interviewing in the law teaching market.
“I am honored to be selected as the next Hastie Fellow,” said Shakeshaft, who started Aug. 18. “I look forward to building on my experience as a sociologist and a civil rights attorney, contributing to legal scholarship and teaching through an interdisciplinary lens focused on mass incarceration, the rights of incarcerated individuals and debt-based sanctions in municipal courts.”
According to Dean Dan Tokaji, Shakeshaft’s career embodies the Law-in-Action approach for which UW Law is famous.
“Emma combines stellar academic credentials with years of practical, on-the-ground experience practicing law,” Tokaji said. “She brings a wealth of knowledge and insights to the Hastie fellowship, along with a research agenda that focuses on some of the most important challenges our society faces.”
Submitted by Law School News on October 7, 2025
This article appears in the categories: Faculty, Features
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