Teaching interests: Civil Rights, Education, Property, Remedies, Constitutional Law

Education:
- J.D., Harvard Law School, 2004
- B.A. w/ High Honors, University of Texas at Austin, Special Honors in History, 2001

Major Publications:

- The Memphis 13, Writer, Co-Producer, Director of Documentary Film (2011)

- Accepting Justice Kennedy’s Dare: The Future of Integration in a Post-PICS World, Fordham Law Review (2010)

- It Takes a Hurricane: Might Hurricane Katrina Deliver for New Orleans What Brown Once Promised?, Journal of Law & Education (2011)

- A Memphis Dilemma: A Half-Century of Public Education Reform in Memphis and Shelby County from Desegregation to Consolidation, Memphis Law Review (2011)

- Exploded Dream: Desegregation in the Memphis City Schools, Law & Inequality (2008)

- An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure: Reframing the Debate About Law School Affirmative Action, Denver Law Review (2011)

Professional Biography:

Prof. Kiel’s research focuses on issues of race and education, and his writing has appeared in law reviews, bar journals, and local and national newspapers.  Specifically, Prof. Kiel’s work examines the use of law to produce more equitable access to high quality education, including examination both of the era of desegregation as well as modern efforts towards improved educational opportunities.

In addition to his representative scholarship listed, Prof. Kiel has written for the Washington Post, USA Today, Memphis Commercial Appeal, Memphis Business Journal, and the Tennessee Young Lawyer, and has been cited in the New York Times and The Guardian (London).  Prof. Kiel has participated in numerous panels and presentations on issues of race and education, both locally and nationally, and has appeared on C-SPAN discussing educational equity.

Prof. Kiel built upon his work researching school desegregation in Memphis through an oral history project that culminated in The Memphis 13, a documentary film he wrote, co-produced, and directed collecting the stories of the students involved in the initial desegregation of Memphis City Schools in 1961.  The film premiered at the National Civil Rights Museum on the 50th anniversary of that historic event.

Prior to entering teaching, Prof. Kiel worked in private practice doing civil litigation at firms in Boston and Memphis.  While in practice, Prof. Kiel also represented criminal defendants in front of both the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals.

Within the community, Prof. Kiel was recently appointed to the Transition Planning Commission charged with developing a plan for creating a countywide school district in Shelby County, TN. In addition, he serves on the advisory board of Facing History and Ourselves and is a founding steering committee member of Common Ground Memphis.  On campus, he serves on the faculty advisory board of the Benjamin Hooks Institute of Social Change. 

Email: dkiel@memphis.edu
Phone: (901) 678-1672
Office: Law 346