Helena Silverstein
Professor and Department Head
Department of Government and Law
Lafayette College
Easton, PA  18042-1780
(610) 330-5389
silversh@lafayette.edu		 
Curriculum Vitae
Girls on the Stand:  How Courts Fail Pregnant Minors

Additional Research on Parental Involvement in Abortion and the Judicial Bypass Process

Academic Biography

Helena Silverstein is a law and society scholar whose current research concerns the implementation of state regulations mandating parental consent or notification when pregnant minors seek abortions. Her publications on this subject include Girls on the Stand: How Courts Fail Pregnant Minors (New York University Press, 2007), and articles in Law & Social Inquiry, Law & Policy, Iowa Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, and Law and Inequality. She is also author of Unleashing Rights:  Law, Meaning, and the Animal Rights Movement (University of Michigan Press, 1996).

Scholars, teachers, journalists, and activists have taken notice of Silverstein’s work.  Her abortion research has been cited in legal briefs, including in the 2006 Supreme Court case Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.  She has won awards from the Western Political Science Association and has presented her work at places such as Princeton, Brown, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, University of Maryland, and Hampshire College.  Silverstein has served as a media source on matters pertaining to minors and abortion, appearing on CNN, ABC News, NPR affiliates, other radio programs, and in newspapers such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Christian Science Monitor.

Silverstein is active in several professional organizations, including the Law and Society Association, the American Political Science Association, and the Western Political Science Association.  Among other things, she has served as the review essays editor of Law & Society Review, the book columnist for the Law and Courts Newsletter, and section chair of the Law and Courts section of the Western Political Science Association.

Silverstein received her Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Washington and her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.  Her teaching specialties include constitutional law, law and society, and judicial politics.