Biography

Professor Kukura’s research explores the intersections of health law and gender, with a particular focus on reproductive health and the law and politics of childbirth. Her scholarship examines laws and policies that impact healthcare decision-making and the role of race, class, gender, and sexuality in shaping health care access, experiences, and outcomes. Her work on obstetric violence explores the lack of legal recourse for rights violations during childbirth and the disproportionate burdens on people of color and other marginalized people within the maternity care system.

Professor Kukura’s scholarship has appeared in such journals as the Georgetown Law Journal, Washington & Lee Law Review, Fordham Law Review, and Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, among others. Her new article, Normalizing Maternal Ambivalence, which critiques the law’s punitive response to women’s perceived ambivalence about pregnancy and parenting, is forthcoming in the Arizona State Law Journal.

Before joining the Kline School of Law, Professor Kukura taught at the Temple University Beasley School of Law. She has also taught at Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine in the Center for Health Justice & Bioethics. She is a member of the Quality Maternal & Newborn Care (QMNC) Research Alliance.

Previously, she practiced at Bryan Cave LLP in New York, where she litigated securities, employment, and other commercial matters, and engaged in pro bono work to advance LGBTQ rights.

She received her JD from New York University School of Law, where she was editor-in-chief of the NYU Review of Law & Social Change. She also holds an LLM from Temple University Beasley School of Law and an MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics & Political Science.