Claire Wofford

Claire B. Wofford, J.D., PhD. is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. Her teaching and research interests are in the field of American politics, with a particular emphasis on the U.S. legal system and the role of gender in structuring political power. She offers courses on American Government, the Judiciary, Constitutional Law, Civil Liberties, and Gender and the Law at the undergraduate level. Dr. Wofford’s scholarly work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, presented at numerous academic conferences, and appeared in Law & Society Review, Justice System Journal, Politics & Gender, and American Politics Research, among others. She has been a frequent commentator for local and national television, radio, and newspaper outlets.

Wofford earned her Ph.D. in Political Science in 2012 from Emory University, where she specialized in judicial politics, Constitutional law and gender in American politics; she also served as a Dean’s Teaching Fellow. Prior to her graduate work, Wofford was the Director of Women’s Studies and Programs at the University of South Carolina Upstate. She also holds a J.D. from Duke University School of Law, where she was a member of the Duke Law Journal and Order of the Coif and worked at National Women’s Law Center. Wofford’s B.A. is in Political Science from Wellesley College, where she was elected to membership in Phi Betta Kappa and served in the speechwriting office of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Additional expertise: legal doctrine, law and gender/women's rights and litigation strategies