Justine DeCamillis, Associate Director, Justice and Legal Thought

Dr. DeCamillis is an award-winning instructor who has taught many courses at the University across multiple departments. She believes in hands-on learning and exploring the rich array of resources that UMD and Washington, DC, have to offer. Her research interests include the history of negotiating personhood, race and gender in the public imagination. Previously at UMD, Dr. DeCamillis served as an undergraduate advisor, organized multiple interdisciplinary conferences, and co-edited a variety of digital humanities projects. She also worked at the Folger Shakespeare Library in DC for five years, most recently with the inaugural project of the Mellon Initiative in Collaborative Research. In her earlier role with the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Office of New Student Orientation and Parent Services, she assisted in welcoming new students and their families to campus by creating robust academic and community-building programming. 

As Associate Director of JLT, she designs and teaches six courses within the program as well as organizes a series of service-learning events on and off campus. A liaison between nonprofit and on campus partners, Dr. DeCamillis is passionate about connecting students with their communities to take what we learn in the classroom and apply it to the real world. She has won a number of accolades at the University for her work including the inaugural Do Good Provost’s Innovator Award, the Philip Merrill Presidential Scholars Faculty Award, a $33K Do Good Campus Fund Grant, and the Mark Wellman Most Charismatic Instructor Award.