Assoc. Prof. of Law and Bernard D. Bergreen Faculty Scholar Michele Landis Dauber has been named the first Law School professor to win The Walter J. Gores Award since 1977.

The Gores Award, the University’s highest teaching honor, is traditionally presented to between three and six members of the Stanford teaching community. At least one senior faculty member — associate or full — or senior lecturer, one junior faculty member or teaching staff member and one teaching assistant — undergraduate or graduate — receive the award each year.

Dauber has been teaching at Stanford for five years. She is currently an associate professor, but will be eligible for promotion to full professor next year. A professor by courtesy in the Sociology Department, Dauber oversees the Law School’s joint degree program with sociology, also acting as an adviser for sociology graduate students whose work involves law-related topics.

“She teaches Torts to the first-year students and a variety of classes on legal history and sociology and law to second- and third-year law students,” said Law School Dean Larry Kramer. “She dedicates a lot of time to her students, helping them not just with the class but also helping them think about their careers and their life at law school.”

“I think students especially appreciate her candor both in and out of class,” he continued. “Michele is brilliant and one of the best young legal scholars in the country.”

According to Kramer, Dauber’s main area of research is government response to emergencies, which she has used as a lens to understand the development of a regulatory state in the period between the Civil War and the New Deal.

“I’m trying to make an authentic connection with students and the award reinforces, to some extent, that I’ve been successful in that endeavor,” she said. “I hope to stay at Stanford next year to continue to do what I’ve been doing.”

According to Dauber, all Gores Award recipients received a mysterious email requesting them to appear in University President John Hennessy’s office. Only after they had all gathered, admittedly confused, were they notified that they had won the prize.

“Sort of like a surprise party,” Dauber said.

The identities of the other winners of the 2005-2006 Gores Awards are not yet publicly available.

Dauber received her BSW at the University of Illinois at Chicago, graduated magnum cum laude from the Northwestern School of Law and received her doctorate in Sociology at Northwestern in 2003. She is currently working on a book entitled “The Sympathetic State: Disaster Relief and the Origins of the American Welfare State,” under contract with the University of Chicago Press.

Nominations for the award were accepted from Stanford community members from February 22 to April 7. Students are especially encouraged to nominate individuals who have impacted their education at Stanford. These nominations were reviewed, with a panel of faculty, staff and students making the final selections.

Past Gores winners since the award was created in 1971 include Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education John Bravman and Psychology Prof. Philip Zimbardo. The only other law professor to win the award was Tony Amsterdam in 1977.

According to the Registrar’s Office, the Gores Award includes a cash stipend, a formal citation and extensive public recognition. The awards will be presented at Commencement on June 18.