Summary
Shari Sanders specializes in constitutional law and is an instructor for the Judicial Studies Graduate Program.
Sanders received her doctorate in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her Juris Doctorate from the University of San Francisco School of Law.
Her interests include genocide, human rights and animal rights within Anglophone, Francophone and Hispanophone nations. Her work is interdisciplinary, combining approaches within philosophy, linguistics and trauma studies to analyze textualism and its application as a theory of legal analysis. Her professional experience includes misdemeanor and felony appeals, capital sentencing, immigration and asylum and animal rights litigation.
Research interests
- Theories of legal personhood
- Animal rights and new approach methodologies (NAMs) in animal research
- Genocide convention
- Relationship of dehumanizing language to the commission of mass atrocities
She was a McGrath Fellow, studying Cambodia and the aftermath of the Cambodian genocide, at the University of San Francisco School of Law. She was a Doctoral Scholars Fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara, pursuing a Ph.D. in genocide, human, and animal rights studies.
Selected publications
- Sanders, Shari (2026). Because Neglect Isn't Cute: Tuxedo Stan's Campaign for a Humane World. M/C Journal, 17, 2.
Courses taught
Sanders has taught courses in academic writing, comparative literature, Holocaust and genocide studies, and English at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She teaches constitutional law for the Judicial Studies Graduate Program at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Education
- J.D., University of San Francisco School of Law, 2025
- Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2018
- Doctoral dissertation: Being Imaginary: Responsibility and the Literary Animal
- M.A., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2012
- B.A. High Distinction, U.S. Literature; Minors: Holocaust, Genocide and Peace Studies and Spanish Language and Culture, University of Nevada, Reno, 2009