Lea VanderVelde

Lea VanderVelde
Occupations
  • Legal scholar
  • historian
SpouseJohannes Ledolter
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship (2010)
Academic background
Education
Academic work
Sub-discipline
  • Labor law
  • employment law
  • American slavery
InstitutionsUniversity of Iowa

Lea VanderVelde is an American legal scholar and historian. She has written or co-authored several legal texts, and is a full professor at the University of Iowa College of Law.[1] She is author of Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery's Frontier (2009) and Redemption Songs: Suing for Freedom before Dred Scott (2014), and is a 2010 Guggenheim Fellow in constitutional studies.

Biography

Lea VanderVelde was born to Harry and Deloris VanderVelde.[2] She obtained a BS from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1974.[1]

After her undergraduate studies, VanderVelde went to University of Wisconsin Law School, where she got a JD in 1978, and was an intern for Wisconsin Supreme Court justice William G. Callow (1978) and senior law clerk for US District Judge Harold Duane Vietor (1979–1980).[3] She subsequently joined the University of Iowa, where she eventually became a full professor and distinguished chair.[1] She was the 2019–2020 May Brodbeck Humanities Fellow at UI.[4]

VanderVelde's research specializes in labor and employment law.[1] She authored and co-authored several legal texts, including Human Resources and the Law (1994), Employment Law (1994), Cases and Text on Property (2000), Analyzing Textual Information: From Words to Meanings through Numbers (2021), and Modern Employment Law: In Time and Place (2022).[5] She is a life fellow of the American Law Institute, as well as a member of the Wisconsin Bar and the Labor Law Group.[1]

In addition to legal scholarship, VanderVelde has also conducted research in American slavery, releasing two books in the process. In 2009, she published Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery's Frontier, centered on the life of Harriet Robinson Scott.[6] In 2010, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Constitutional Studies.[7] She discovered the records of hundreds of freedom suits in St. Louis during research, and in 2014 published a book that analyzes twelve of them: Redemption Songs: Suing for Freedom before Dred Scott.[8] She won the American Journal of Legal History's inaugural 2020 Alfred L. Brophy Prize for her article "The Anti-Republican Origins of the At-Will Doctrine".[9]

VanderVelde met children's rights activist Kailash Satyarthi while his daughter attended UI; the two connected "over his passion for fighting slavery – one of her areas of research", and she visited his ashram during a three-week vacation in his native India.[10] Alongside Iowa senator Tom Harkin, she nominated Satyarthi for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, and then every year until he was awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.[10]

VanderVelde lives in Iowa City.[11] She has two children with her husband Johannes Ledolter.[12] She advocated for prenatal screening for Group B streptococcal infections after her newborn daughter Sara died of the disease in October 1989.[12][13]

Works

  • (with Mark A. Rothstein) Human Resources and the Law (1994)[5]
  • (with Mark A. Rothstein, Charles B. Craver, Elinor Schroeder, and Elaine W. Shoben) Employment Law (1994)[5]
  • (with A. James Casner, W. Barton Leach, Susan F. French, and Gerald Korngold) Cases and Text on Property (2000)[5]
  • Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery's Frontier (2009)[a]
  • Redemption Songs: Suing for Freedom before Dred Scott (2014)[b]
  • (with Johannes Ledolter) Analyzing Textual Information: From Words to Meanings through Numbers (2021)[5]
  • Modern Employment Law: In Time and Place (2022)[5]

Notes

  1. ↑ Reviews of this book: [14][15]
  2. ↑ Reviews of this book: [16][8][17][18][19][20][21]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Lea VanderVelde". University of Iowa College of Law. Archived from the original on July 14, 2026. Retrieved July 9, 2026.
  2. ↑ "Deaths". The Cedar Rapids Gazette. October 14, 1989. p. 12A – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ "Lea VanderVelde CV" (PDF). University of Iowa College of Law. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 12, 2026. Retrieved July 9, 2026.
  4. ↑ "Faculty Fellowships (Brodbeck and Van Allen)". University of Iowa. Archived from the original on July 14, 2026. Retrieved July 8, 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Lea VanderVelde". University of Iowa Law Library. Archived from the original on July 13, 2026. Retrieved July 8, 2026.
  6. ↑ "Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery's Frontier". OUP Academic. Archived from the original on November 12, 2023. Retrieved July 9, 2026.
  7. ↑ "Lea VanderVelde". Guggenheim Fellowships. Archived from the original on July 14, 2026. Retrieved July 8, 2026.
  8. 1 2 DeBrincat, Dominic (2017). "Review of VanderVelde, Lea, Redemption Songs: Suing for Freedom before Dred Scott". H-Teach. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved July 9, 2026 – via H-Net.
  9. ↑ "Alfred L. Brophy Prize". Oxford Academic. Archived from the original on August 22, 2024. Retrieved July 8, 2026.
  10. 1 2 Gowans, Alison (October 11, 2014). "Winner Satyarthi has Iowa ties". The Gazette. p. P3 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ Gowans, Alison (September 21, 2016). "Action against child labor urged". The Gazette. p. P2 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. 1 2 Lunner, Chet (October 22, 1992). "Parents wage national campaign". Iowa City Press-Citizen. p. 1C, 2C – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ Lash, Deborah (March 10, 1996). "'No one told us this could happen'". Quad-City Times. p. 1A – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ King, Wilma (2010). "Review of Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery's Frontier". The Journal of American History. 96 (4): 1178–1179. ISSN 0021-8723. JSTOR 40661874.
  15. ↑ Saillant, John (2011). "Review of Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery's Frontier". The Historian. 73 (2): 362–364. ISSN 0018-2370. JSTOR 24455127.
  16. ↑ Brophy, Alfred L. (2017). "Slaves as Plaintiffs". Michigan Law Review. 115 (6): 895–914. ISSN 0026-2234. JSTOR 44984902.
  17. ↑ Egerton, Douglas R.; Fought, Leigh (2016). "To Make Themselves Free". Reviews in American History. 44 (3): 433–442. ISSN 0048-7511. JSTOR 26364068.
  18. ↑ Gordon-Reed, Annette (2016). "Review of Redemption Songs: Suing for Freedom Before Dred Scott". The Journal of American History. 102 (4): 1189–1190. ISSN 0021-8723. JSTOR 44287268.
  19. ↑ Jones, Martha S. (2015). "Review of Redemption Songs: Suing for Freedom before Dred Scot". Law and History Review. 33 (4): 1009–1011. ISSN 0738-2480. JSTOR 43670843.
  20. ↑ Reynolds, Rita (2015). "Review of Redemption Songs: Suing for Freedom before Dred Scott". The Journal of Southern History. 81 (4): 965–967. ISSN 0022-4642. JSTOR 43918842.
  21. ↑ Schweninger, Loren (2015). "Review of Redemption Songs: Suing for Freedom before Dred Scott". Journal of the Civil War Era. 5 (4): 596–599. ISSN 2154-4727. JSTOR 26070361.
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