Saru Matambanadzo

Dr. Saru M. Matambanadzo is the Moise S. Steeg Jr. Associate Professor of Law at Tulane University Law School and Senior Director of Online Legal Education. An interdisciplinary scholar whose work bridges legal compliance, workplace regulation, and the social sciences, she is a nationally recognized expert on inequality and employment law.

Matambanadzo’s scholarship examines how law organizes social and economic belonging and inclusion through hierarchies informed by race, gender, and disability. Her research uses various critical theory traditions to address pregnancy and sex discrimination, workplace equity, gender identity and legal sex, legal personhood, vulnerability, critical legal pedagogy, racial capitalism, and the relationship between legal institutions and systems of power.

Since joining the Tulane Law faculty in 2010, Dr. Matambanadzo has earned a reputation as an award-winning teacher and mentor. She serves as Senior Director and Faculty Director of Tulane Law School’s innovative Master of Jurisprudence (MJ) program, an online graduate degree designed for professionals seeking advanced expertise in human resources compliance, labor and employment law, and related regulatory fields. 

Her commitment to student learning and professional development has been recognized with the Felix Frankfurter Distinguished Teaching Award in both 2017 and 2026, as well as a university-wide Trainee Mentorship Award honoring her work mentoring students as scholars, writers, and researchers. Dr. Matambanadzo has also received numerous grants and fellowships supporting her research, including a Professorship at Tulane’s Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking, a research award from the Newcomb Institute, the inaugural Gordon Gamm Faculty Fellowship, and a Lavin-Bernick Faculty Grant.

A leader in legal education and critical legal scholarship, Dr. Matambanadzo currently serves on the board of LatCrit, was a founding board member of ClassCrits, and has held several leadership positions within the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), including Chair of the Section on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues. She currently serves as Chair-Elect of the AALS Section on Critical Theory.

Matambanadzo earned her Ph.D. in Women’s Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she received a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship in support of her doctoral research. She holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A., summa cum laude, in English Literature and Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh.