Professor Maryam Ahranjani’s Scholarship Is Advancing Access, Opportunity, and Inclusion in the Law
For Professor Maryam Ahranjani, scholarship is about more than examining the law. It is about expanding access to legal education, strengthening students' rights, and creating a more inclusive legal profession. With 25 years of experience in legal education, her research spans constitutional law, school safety, criminal law, and the policies that shape who enters and succeeds in the legal profession. “Generally, they're about access,” she explains of her varied scholarly interests. “How to improve access,” and “how to make sure the legal profession is as inclusive as possible.”
One of Professor Ahranjani's longest-standing areas of expertise is the constitutional rights of public school students, explored in her 2025 Nevada Law Journal article, Unarresting School Safety, 25 Nev. L. J. 709 (2025). The research builds on decades of involvement with the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, which she recently introduced at Boyd Law after previously directing the national program and helping establish chapters across the country. Through the project, law students teach constitutional law to high school students, encouraging them to understand and exercise their rights while developing the skills to participate in civic life. Professor Ahranjani believes schools should be “laboratories of democracy,” where students have opportunities to practice their rights, develop civic values, and prepare to contribute to society.
Her scholarship also examines the institutions and individuals responsible for shaping the next generation of legal professionals. In A Dean Like Me: What Diverse Faculty Expect of Diverse Deans, coauthored with Jill Engle and forthcoming in the Rutgers Law Review, Professor Ahranjani explores the expectations placed on law school leaders from underrepresented backgrounds and the importance of supporting both faculty and deans. Her forthcoming book chapter, Is Standardized Testing Antithetical to Antiracism Efforts in Law School Admissions?, coauthored with Adria Kimbrough, examines how standardized testing influences law school applicant pools and student bodies. Together with her additional scholarship on ethical admissions practices and financial aid, this work reflects her commitment to expanding opportunity throughout legal education.
Professor Ahranjani's recent work also includes editing Women in Criminal Law: A Practical Guide for Inclusive and Thriving Workplaces (2025), alongside a forthcoming practice manual on New Mexico criminal law and procedure, drawing on nearly a decade of teaching at the University of New Mexico. Although these projects span different areas of law, they reflect her commitment to improving legal education and professional practice. For Professor Ahranjani, supporting students, faculty, and institutional leaders is part of a larger mission: preparing lawyers who can serve an evolving society while ensuring that more people have meaningful opportunities to join the profession.