Professor Tiffany D. Atkins
Associate Professor of Law at Elon University School of Law
Professor Tiffany D. Atkins, recently promoted to Associate Professor of Law at Elon University School of Law effective Fall 2022, is the proud recipient of the 2022 ALWD Diversity Award.
This award honors a person who has made significant accomplishments in the area of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) or has demonstrated a strong commitment to promoting DEI, including efforts to improve the status of historically underrepresented groups. ALWD created this award in furtherance of its continued commitment to contributing to a legal writing discipline that is equitable and inclusive. The meaningful inclusion of diverse voices and experiences is necessary for ALWD to succeed in its mission of improving legal education and the analytic, reasoning, and writing abilities of lawyers.
Professor Atkins has a fierce and deep commitment to social justice. She strives for excellence in pursuing equality and equity inside and outside the classroom. In the classroom, Professor Atkins utilizes innovative techniques to engage students in conversations about equity and inclusion. She bravely challenges her students to explore difficult discussions while guiding them with passion and empathy.
Professor Atkins's innovative teaching modalities engage Gen Z students. Her class assignments include podcasts, documentaries, and other multimodal exercises to encourage curiosity and understanding in her students. She also designs her course learning management system site to deepen student learning with interactive discussion boards and prompts to encourage students to learn from one another.
Professor Atkins's scholarship demonstrates her commitment to social justice, access, and inclusion. Her scholarship focuses on social justice, including promoting inclusion and reimagining law school curricula for Gen Z students. Her teaching methods encourage the inclusion of first-generation students, students of color, and introverted law students who may feel overlooked and out of place in law schools. Her notable scholarship, Amplifying Diverse Voices: Strategies for Promoting Inclusion in the Law School Classroom, offers practical strategies for law professors to enhance inclusivity. The article explores Innovative teaching techniques engaging Gen Z students through podcasts, documentaries, and multimodal exercises.
Her second paper was a piece challenging law schools, law school administrators, and professors to reimagine the law school curriculum and programs to be more supportive of entering Gen Z students. In #ForTheCulture: Generation Z and the Future of Legal Education, she argues that law school culture must shift from competitive, exclusive spaces to diverse, inclusive spaces where Gen Z students of color can thrive. Her forthcoming paper, These Brutal Indignities: The Case for Crimes Against Humanity in Black America (forthcoming Kentucky L. Journal Fall '22), shifts away from pedagogy and legal education to human rights and critical race theory, continuing to demonstrate Tiffany's excellence in scholarship and her dedication to equity, social justice, and reform.
Thus, Professor Atkins's status as a first-generation woman of color fuels her passion for promoting inclusion in law school classrooms. She has made great accomplishments in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion and demonstrated a very strong commitment to promoting DEI. Her credentials and accomplishments are outstanding. Professor Atkins has accomplished very impressive work regarding DEI, including connecting with Gen Z and recognizing the LGBTQ+ community in her diversity and equity efforts.
Professor Tiffany Atkins was named the recipient of the second ALWD Diversity Award because she is an outstanding representative of the legal writing field. She has made and continues to make significant contributions toward the promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion in legal writing and legal education.
Although we were unable to formally honor Professor Atkins, she received the award at the 2022 LWI Biennial Meeting in recognition of her outstanding contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion in legal education.
