Cristina Violante

My research looks at the history of water law in settler colonial contexts, with a particular eye to how the law creates and embeds social hierarchies and acts as means of appropriating and commodifying the natural world. I am particularly interested in groundwater pumping and agriculture, and am exploring the links there between law, science and technology studies, and environmental history. My second set of interests revolves around questions of interpretation and everyday practice of the law.

I have experience at a plaintiff-side labor and employment firm, and as a data and research reporter at legal newsroom Law360, where I covered intellectual property, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the legal industry.

B.A. Philosophy and Religion, Boston University, cum laude; M.A. Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, Columbia University