Associate Dean Jeffrey A. Dodge lectures at Nirma University Institute of Law

CARLISLE, Pa.—On March 12, 2026, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Jeffrey A. Dodge convened a lecture in Ahmedabad, India, attended by an estimated 400–450 students in person in an auditorium and online. Dodge’s lecture, titled “Ground Zero in the Culture Wars: The Segregatory Effects of Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws and Policies in U.S. Public Education,” was one of dozens of lectures given in-person and virtually at Nirma University Institute of Law as part of its annual International Teaching Month.

The lecture topic connects to Dodge's current research on the segregatory effects of growing anti-LGBTQ+ laws in education. His work-in-progress article argues that there's a need for broader legal and interdisciplinary coordination to understand the impact of these laws on LGBTQ+ families and youth. In advancing this argument, he draws on the successful strategies made in Brown v. Board of Education and suggests a similarly seminal case or problem-solving federal statute is needed.

International Teaching Month began in 2016, co-organized by Nirma University Institute of Law and Penn State Dickinson Law, and has drawn visiting faculty from more than 20 universities around the world: from the U.S., Peru, and Colombia to Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Spain, Hungary, and Russia. Visiting faculty offer lectures, seminars, workshops, and certificate programs to Nirma University students.

Jeffrey A. Dodge, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Assistant Professor of Law, and Joseph H. Goldstein Faculty Scholar at Penn State Dickinson Law, has spent nearly 20 years in legal education. Dean Dodge has broad experience overseeing law school and University-level offices of student services, international programs, admissions, academic success, career services, and more. He has taught and presented on topics in the fields of family law, education law, international human rights, and LGBTQ+ inequality. His scholarship focuses on the intersection of educational access and minoritized communities. Dean Dodge is past chair of the Association of American Law Schools Student Services, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues, and International Legal Exchange sections. He has served on the national diversity committee of the Law School Admission Council, as an American Bar Association accreditation site evaluator, and as a three-time director of the CLEO Pre-Law Summer Institute.