The Convocation Speaker

Alison L. LaCroix is a renowned scholar of U.S. legal history specializing in constitutional law, federalism, and 18th- and 19th-century legal thought.

LaCroix is the author of The Ideological Origins of American Federalism (2010) and The Interbellum Constitution: Union, Commerce and Slavery in the Age of Federalisms (2024). The Interbellum Constitution, which examines a transformative yet overlooked period in U.S. history between the War of 1812 and the Civil War (1815 to 1861), was awarded two major book prizes: the Littleton-Griswold Prize from the American Historical Association and the SHEAR Book Prize from the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.

LaCroix is a member of the editorial advisory boards of the Journal of American Constitutional History and the American Journal of Legal History and has served as a member of the board of directors of the American Society for Legal History.

In 2021, President Joe Biden appointed her to a bipartisan commission to examine possible reform to the U.S. Supreme Court. She was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship in 2018.

Professor LaCroix received her Ph.D. in history from Harvard University, her J.D. from Yale Law School, and her B.A., summa cum laude, from Yale University. She joined the University of Chicago faculty in 2006.

Professor LaCroix will deliver an address to the Class of 2026 on Saturday, June 6, at the 540th Convocation of the University of Chicago.