Nate Ela is an Assistant Professor of Law at Temple University Beasley School of Law. His research and writing focus on the law and political economy of urban resilience, and on election law reform. Professor Ela teaches Constitutional Law and Land Use Law.
Before joining Temple in 2023, Ela was Assistant Professor of Political Science and Law at the University of Cincinnati. He previously was a Visiting Scholar at the American Bar Foundation and has taught at Northwestern Law School as well as Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic. His advocacy has included supporting human rights and food sovereignty activists in the United States and overseas and co-founding an online library of model laws for U.S. state legislators. He has recently contributed to efforts to deepen multiparty democracy in the United States.
Professor Ela holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Professor Ela’s recent and forthcoming publications appear in law and social science journals including the Fordham Urban Law Journal, the Howard Law Journal, Law & Social Inquiry, Social Problems, Social Science History, and the Washington University Law Review. His articles have received awards from the Social Science History Association and the American Sociological Association Sections on Law and Human Rights. He is completing his first book, Fix the City: The Long Struggle to Put Urban Land to Use.