Professor of Law
University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law
Professor Kiel has been a member of the faculty since 2008. He teaches Property, Constitutional Law, and Education & Civil Rights, and was awarded the University's Distinguished Teaching Award in 2017. Professor Kiel's scholarly work centers on inequality in the education system, particularly along lines of race, as well as constitutional questions of citizenship and justice.
In 2011, Professor Kiel built upon his work on school desegregation in Memphis through an oral history project that culminated in The Memphis 13, a documentary film he wrote and directed sharing the stories of the first students to desegregate public schools in Memphis. The award-winning film premiered at the National Civil Rights Museum on desegregation’s 50th anniversary and it has been featured at film festivals, universities, and museums across the country.
Professor Kiel is the author of The Transition: Interpreting Justice from Thurgood Marshall to Clarence Thomas (2023) and has published in a variety of scholarly journals as well as the Washington Post, USA Today, and various other outlets. In 2015, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to undertake comparative research on educational disparities in South Africa and was hosted during his months there at the University of the Free State.
Beyond the walls of the law school, Professor Kiel has given numerous scholarly and media presentation on issues of race and education, both locally and nationally. In 2010, he was appointed to the Shelby County Transition Planning Commission, which was charged with coordinating the largest school district merger in American history. For his work on schooling in Memphis, he has been cited in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Education Week and was awarded the 2013 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Human Rights Award by the University of Memphis.
Prior to entering teaching, Professor Kiel worked in private practice doing civil litigation at firms in Boston and Memphis. While in practice, he also represented criminal defendants in post-conviction matters at both the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. Prof. Kiel serves on the boards of Facing History and Ourselves and Just City, and was a founding steering committee member of Common Ground Memphis. On campus, he has served as an associate director of the Benjamin Hooks Institute of Social Change.
For more works by Professor Daniel Kiel, please visit his SSRN page.
The transition : interpreting justice from Thurgood Marshall to Clarence Thomas by For more works by Professor Daniel Kiel, please visit his SSRN page.
The Memphis 13, documentary film (2011)
Wrtters: Daniel Kiel, Mark C. Hill, David Kiern
Director: Daniel Kiel
Summary:
First grade can be a scary thing, even without the burden of making history. In October 1961, 13 first graders became some of the smallest pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement when they desegregated the Memphis City Schools. 'The Memphis 13' is their story. This documentary collects the stories of 13 families united by a comment moment in history, but experiences individually; stories of normal children living through an extraordinary moment. A half century later, they are proud of having broken a barrier, but many remain burdened by this difficult experience. The film uncovers a hidden story of the Movement, honors the children who lived it, and raises questions about the role of children in movements for social change.
source: IMDB online database
For more works by Professor Daniel Kiel, please visit his SSRN page.