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Each year, the Robert L. Hell Scholar-in-Residence Program invites to campus a distinguished individual representative of an academic discipline at the college. During Hess Week, the scholar-in-residence is introduced to students and faculty through a series of lectures, discussions, and special events.
Melissa Murray, Brooklyn College’s 2024–25 Hess Scholar-in-Residence, is the Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law at NYU School of Law, where she teaches constitutional law, family law, criminal law, and reproductive rights and justice.
The Wolfe Institute will be hosting a number of events throughout the academic year to introduce Professor Murray to the campus community in anticipation of her residency during the week of April 1, 2025.
Learn more about Melissa Murray
The Robert L. Hess Scholar-in-Residence Program, established by Brooklyn College, is supported by the Robert L. Hess Fund. The program serves as a permanent tribute to the scholarly commitment of Robert L. Hess, exemplified during his tenure as president of Brooklyn College. It represents the ideal of the educated individual—knowledgeable, thoughtful, inquiring, alive to the shared purposes and concerns lining all intellectual pursuits. More particularly, it evokes the scholarly and academic virtues embodied in the curriculum at Brooklyn College.
The purpose of the program is to invite to the campus each year a distinguished individual representative of an academic discipline at the college, with the selection of such scholars being rotated through the disciplines. The distinction of the scholars in residence is based on their accomplishments and stature, not on their affiliation; they may be drawn from the academy, from the professions, or from public life. They must be able to speak to issues of their disciplines as well as significant issues of concern to the entire Brooklyn College community.
The scholar in residence engages in a variety of activities appropriate to the discipline, whether public lectures, performances, master classes, or guest lectures in undergraduate courses; participates in panels or symposia; and meets informally and socially with students, members of the faculty, alumni, and friends of Brooklyn College.
The Brooklyn College Library has received the Ethiopian and African history collection from the library of Robert L. Hess. A portion of the Robert L. Hess Fund is set aside for the conservation and enhancement of this collection.
