Apsara Iyer becomes first Indian American woman president of Harvard Law Review
A second-year student at Harvard Law School, Iyer became the first woman from the community to be elected to the coveted position in the prestigious publication’s 136-year history, a report in The Harvard Crimson said on Monday
By CNBCTV18.com
Apsara Iyer, an Indian American student at the Harvard Law School has been elected as the 137th president of the Harvard Law Review. A second-year student at Harvard Law School, Iyer became the first woman from the community to be elected to the coveted position in the prestigious publication’s 136-year history, a report in The Harvard Crimson said on Monday
Iyer, who has been working in art crime investigation and repatriation since 2018, succeeds Priscila Coronado as the president.
The report added that Iyer joined the Harvard Law Review after a competitive process called “write-on,” where Harvard Law School students “rigorously fact-check a document and provide commentary on a recent State or Supreme Court Case.”
Who is Apsara Iyer?
As per The Crimson report, the 29-year-old graduated from Yale with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics with Math, and a Spanish degree in 2016.
Iyer then pursued MPhil at Oxford as a Clarendon Scholar because of her interest in archaeology and indigenous communities. In 2018, she joined the Manhattan District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit (ATU).
Iyer has great interest in understanding the “value of cultural heritage” and her enthusiasm led her to work in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit, which is responsible for tracking stolen works of art and artifacts.
At the ATU, she investigated art crime and coordinated with international and federal law-enforcement authorities to repatriate more than 1,100 stolen works of art to 15 different countries.
In 2018, Iyer worked in the office before coming to the Law School and took a leave of absence after her first year studying law to return to the role, as per the report.
In 2020, Iyer enrolled at Harvard Law School where she is a student in the International Human Rights Clinic.
After being elected as the president of Harvard Law Review, Iyer said that she aims to include more editors in the process of reviewing and selecting articles and upholding the publication’s reputation for high-quality work. Iyer’s current focus is to ensure everything keeps moving smoothly.
Her immediate predecessor Priscila Coronado said the publication is “extremely lucky” to have Iyer at the helm.
The distinguished former presidents of the much revered law journal include former president Barack Obama and US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Iyer has previously worked with the National Security Journal and the Law School’s Harvard Human Rights Journal and she is also a member of the South Asian Law Students Association.
Image: The Harvard Crimson
