Education

M.A., University of Illinois
Ph.D., University of California -- Berkeley

Biography

Professor Donald Downs teaches courses dealing with public law, American politics, and political theory.  He is a faculty member of  the Department of Political Science and a longtime affiliate of the Law School.

Professor Downs has been active in campus civil liberty issues, and often serves as a media commentator on constitutional issues at the local, state and national levels.

He has won several awards for excellence in teaching, including the University of Wisconsin Distinguished Teaching Award and the Wisconsin Student Association's teaching award.

Professor Downs's prize-winning books include Nazis in Skokie: Freedom, Community and the First Amendment (winner of the Anisfield-Wolfe Award for the best book on race relations); The New Politics of Pornography (winner of the American Political Science Association's Gladys Kammerer Award for the best book dealing with American politics or policy); and Victims: Battered Women, the Syndrome Society and the Law.

He is currently completing a book on the politics of civil liberty on American university campuses.