Dana Zuk

Dana Zuk
S.J.D. Candidate
dzukreifer at sjd.law.harvard.edu

Dissertation

The Making and Unmaking of the Modern American Middle Class

My SJD dissertation investigates the historical formation and eventual fragmentation of the modern American middle class from the 1930s through the mid-1980s. It conceptualizes the middle class not as a fixed demographic or income bracket, but as a historically contingent class formation, marked by distinctive patterns in the distribution of authority and ownership rights. The project examines how individuals came to occupy specific social roles within a broader political-economic order, and how those roles were continually shaped and reshaped by legal, institutional, and economic transformations. Its central argument is that the trajectory of the 20th-century American labor movement—its achievements as well as its limitations—cannot be fully understood apart from the socio-economic consolidation and subsequent fragmentation of the middle class during this period.

Fields of Research and Supervisors

  • Law and Political Economy with Professor Yochai Benkler, Harvard Law School, Principal Faculty Supervisor
  • History of Labor Law and History of the American Labor Movement with Professor Laura Weinrib, Harvard Law School
  • Consumer Finance with Professor Oren Bar-Gill, NYU School of Law (previously Harvard Law School)

Additional Research Interests

  • Labor Law
  • Law & Class Analysis
  • Legal History
  • Legal and Political Theory
  • Legal Foundations of Capitalism

Education

  • Harvard Law School, S.J.D. Candidate, 2023-Present
  • Harvard Law School, LL.M. Program, 2022-2023 (requirements fulfilled, degree waived)
  • Tel Aviv University Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities, M.A. (Philosophy) Candidate, 2021-Present
  • Tel Aviv University Buchmann Faculty of Law, LL.B., Magna Cum Laude, 2012-2016
  • Tel Aviv University Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities, B.A. (Philosophy), Magna Cum Laude, 2012-2016

Academic Appointments and Fellowships

  • Law and Political Economy Graduate Student Fellow, Harvard Law School, 2025-present
  • Writing Advisor, Graduate Program Fellow, Harvard Law School, 2025-present
  • LL.M. Advisor, Graduate Program Fellow, Harvard Law School, 2023-24/2024-25

Representative Publications

Additional Information

  • Languages: English (fluent), Hebrew (native)
  • Harvard Law School Award for Best Papers in Law and Political Economy, 2022-2023

Last Updated: August 19th, 2025