Emily A. Prifogle

Professor Prifogle’s current book argues that the legal remaking of rural communities was a central feature of 20th-century America. The project utilizes case studies to examine critical topics such as land use and zoning, policing and prosecution, education equality, labor and economic opportunity, local community organizing and advocacy, and infrastructure and mobility—and reveals their manifestations in rural geographies, economies, and social norms. The result is a new legal history that tells a story of the rural Midwest in a constant process of transformation along lines of class, race, and gender in the 20th century.

Professor Prifogle is also a co-director of the Program in Race, Law, and History and organizes Michigan Law’s Race and Property Law in Historical Perspective Speaker Series.

Through her appointment in the history department, Professor Prifogle advises undergraduate and graduate history students on topics of legal history.