Biography
Vanessa Miller is an Assistant Professor of Law at FIU College of Law. She teaches criminal law, criminal procedure, and a seminar titled, “Police, Crime, and Education.” She is an interdisciplinary scholar who researches the policing of American schools and universities.
Before joining the FIU College of Law, Professor Miller was a faculty member at Indiana University Bloomington and the inaugural postdoctoral associate for the Race and Crime Center for Justice at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Upon graduating law school, she worked at a leading education law firm in California.
Professor Miller’s academic writing examines the legal and institutional structures that authorize and regulate campus police, drawing from legal and empirical data. She has written on the statutory frameworks governing the authority and jurisdiction of campus police, the hybrid role of campus police as law enforcement officers and university employees, and the relationship between the carceral state and higher education. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in several law and peer reviewed journals, including the Harvard Educational Review, Denver Law Review, Buffalo Law Review, University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review, and Educational Researcher. She has also authored book chapters on the powers and practices of campus police departments. She was selected to present her work at the University of Michigan Law School Junior Scholars Conference as well as the AALS and SEALS New Scholars Program. She was also selected as an Education Law Association Early Career Fellow.
Professor Miller graduated with her J.D. and Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University. Her dissertation received the Dr. Marcia Clarke-Yapi Dissertation Memorial Award which recognizes the highest quality dissertation focused on educational equity research. She is from Miami, Florida and grew up less than five miles from the FIU Modesto Madique Campus.
Education
- JD, Penn State Law
- PhD, Pennsylvania State University
- MA, Columbia University
- BA, University of Florida