Karen Musalo, Clinical Professor of Law and Director, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies

Karen Musalo has been at Hastings since 1997, following years of teaching, as well as lawyering in the non-profit world. She has written numerous articles on refugee law issues, with a focus on gender asylum, as well as religious persecution, and conscientious objection as bases for refugee status. Professor Musalo has contributed to the evolving jurisprudence of asylum law not only through her scholarship, but through her litigation of landmark cases. She was lead attorney in Matter of Kasinga (fear of female genital cutting as a basis of asylum), which continues to be cited as authority in gender asylum cases by tribunals from Canada to the United Kingdom to New Zealand. Her current work examines the linkage between human rights violations and migration, with a focus on the phenomenon of femicides in Guatemala, and its relation to requests for refugee protection from Guatemalan women. 

She likes the outdoors, and exploring new places, so when she’s not working, she’s likely to be walking on a beach, or taking in the sights of a city, small town, or rugged countryside of a place she’s never been before. 

Courses Taught: Refugee Law & Policy, Hastings to Haiti Seminar, and Refugee & Human Rights Clinic

What I hope you get from a legal education at Hastings... are the tools to do something that makes a difference in the world, and brings you self-fulfillment and happiness.