Research on U.S. Asylum law
Deborah Anker, Clinical Professor of Law Emerita, will be hiring assistant and senior research assistants to update the 2026 edition of Law of Asylum in the United States, the leading treatise on U.S. asylum law. The roles of each are described below.
Professor Anker is a prominent attorney and scholar in the field of U.S. refugee law who has published the treatise for more than two decades.
For the past two editions Professor Anker has co-authored the treatise with Jeffrey S. Chase. Among other roles and activities related to U.S. asylum law, Mr. Chase, as founder of the Round Table of Former Immigration Judges, has served in an amicus capacity in impact litigation relating to asylum and Convention Against Torture protection.
Senior Research Assistant (SRA)
Responsibilities: SRAs supervise the work of the ARAs (including managing research assistants’ cite checking and carefully monitoring new citations). SRAs may conduct additional research and drafting for inclusion in the treatise based on recent developments in asylum law. SRAs will meet regularly with Professor Anker and Mr. Chase to discuss substantive edits. Weekly time commitment is flexible, with approximately 120 hours of work to be completed between September and mid-January.
Senior Research Assistant application requirements: Prior experience in asylum law or practice is preferred, but not required. Submit a resume via email to cloizides@law.harvard.edu. If your experience in immigration is not self-evident from your resume, you may also submit a statement of interest (100 words).
Weekly time commitments are flexible; researchers average ten hours per week from September through November.
SRA application requirements: Submit a resume via email to cloizides@law.harvard.edu by end-of-day October 10th, 2025. Please list any prior immigration experience, or reasons for your interest in this field, in an optional statement of interest (100 – 150 words). Please only apply if you can adhere to the overall time commitment. Prior experience with asylum or immigration law is helpful but not required.