News & Events

Join us for 'Gender apartheid from South Africa to Afghanistan' with Professor Penelope Andrews, New York Law School.

When: 10:30am-11:30am, Monday, 28 September 2026

Where: Irish Centre for Human Rights Seminar Room, University of Galway, Tea/coffee from 10.15am – ICHR social space

Penelope Andrews is a Law Professor at New York Law School since  January 2019 and teaches professional responsibility, gender equality, and racial justice and the law. She is Director of NYLS’s Racial Justice Project. In 2026, she received the  Prominent Women in International Law Award from the American Society of International Law.  In 2025, the Law and Society Association awarded Penny the 2025 Ronald Pipkin Service Award in recognition of her extraordinary and sustained service to the Association and to the broader sociolegal community.

Professor Andrews began her teaching career at Australia’s La Trobe University, where she taught for eight years, before moving to the City University of New York School of Law, where she taught public international law, gender and law, race and law, comparative law, and torts for 15 years. She has held visiting appointments at law schools across the U.S. and internationally and senior leadership posts, including serving as the first Black Dean at the University of Cape Town Faculty of Law (2016–2018) and the first female Dean and President of Albany Law School (2012–2015).

Professor Andrews is active in international collaborative research and mentoring networks and committed to ensuring the relevance of law and society scholarship to global academic communities. She is an editor of the International Journal of Law in Context, the Human Rights and the Global Economy E-Journal, and the African Law E-Journal.  She has authored books and articles focusing on comparative constitutional law, gender and racial equality, human rights, the judiciary, and legal education.

Professor Andrews’ focus on the judiciary in South Africa seeks to bridge the divide between theory and practice. Her writing explores the transformation of the judiciary, particularly the appointment of female judges. She was a trainer with the Judicial Institute for Africa, specializing in judicial opinion writing and communications skills. She also served as an Acting Judge of the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria for the 2018 third term and as an arbitrator in racial discrimination hearings in South Africa.

She has served on law school committees and the boards of public interest and human rights organizations, including the Africa Section of Human Rights Watch and the National Center for Law and Economic Justice. From 2019 to 2021 she served a two-year term as the President of the Law and Society Association. She also recently served as Chair of the Board of the Institute for African Women in Law and is a member of the National University of Ireland Galway’s External Advisory Group on Gender Equality and the Advisory Committee of the South African Research Chair in Teaching and Learning at the University of Johannesburg.

Professor Andrews has received many awards, including a 2022 Honorary Degree in Humane Letters from Franklin University in Switzerland in recognition of her work and commitment to social justice and human rights. In 2024 she was awarded the Deborah Rhode Leadership Award, by the Association of American Law Schools and the Legacy Impact Award from the Minority Section, of the Association of American Law Schools.

Professor Andrews is a regular commentator in the media on South African legal issues and racial justice matters.