Kristen Carpenter is the Council Tree Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School. She is currently a visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Her research examines the legal claims of indigenous peoples with respect to issues of property, religion, culture, and human rights. Among other venues, her work has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, California Law Review, Texas Law Review, UCLA Law Review, and Fordham Law Review. She has been awarded the Provost’s Award for Faculty Achievement and the Outstanding New Faculty Award. 

Carpenter clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit and was an associate attorney at Hill & Barlow, P.C. in Boston. She also served as a clerk for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and at the law firms of Fredericks, Pelcyger, Hester & White and Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Miller & Munson. Professor Carpenter has served on the boards of the Federal Bar Association’s Indian Law Section and the Colorado Indian Bar Association. She is a member of the American Law Institute and an Adviser on the ALI’s Restatement of Indian Law Project.

Professor Carpenter is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School.