ASU Law alum awarded 2023 William H. Hastie Fellowship

Torey Dolan, an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation and a 2019 graduate of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, has been selected as the 2023 William H. Hastie Fellow. She is the first fellow from ASU Law, and the second woman who is a tribal citizen, to be selected for this prestigious honor.

The University of Wisconsin Law School’s fellowship program has provided aspiring scholars with an outstanding opportunity to prepare for a career in law teaching. The two-year fellowship reflects a nearly 50-year commitment to diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and especially encourages applications from candidates of color and other underrepresented communities in the legal field. Fellows pursue a scholarly agenda of their choice, typically prepare two pieces for publication, and receive mentoring in their teaching and scholarship. 

While in the program, Dolan will receive mentoring and support to devote the majority of her time to research and writing. The fellowship program also provides practice opportunities for interviewing in the law teaching market. Dolan will have the option of teaching a seminar in spring 2025 or another future semester. Dan Tokaji, the Fred W. & Vi Miller Dean and Professor of Law at UW Law, will serve as Dolan’s research advisor. 

Dolan follows in the footsteps of ASU Law's Willard H. Pedrick Dean and Regents Professor of Law Stacy Leeds, who was awarded the Hastie Fellowship in 1998. 

“The Hastie Fellowship continues a long and impactful legacy of placing up-and-coming talent on law faculties across the country, including a number of law deans,” she said. “I am proud to see Torey enter this remarkable pipeline and I am so pleased with the growing number of connections between ASU and Wisconsin.” 

Dolan’s research will focus on how American Indians express ideas of self-determination and political actualization through participation in state and federal democracies and how conflicts of tribal, state and federal law impacts the administration of elections on tribal lands.

The work Dolan will embark upon in the program builds on the passion that she formed as an ASU Law student. Dolan graduated with a Juris Doctor and an Indian Law Certificate in 2019. 

She currently serves as a Native Vote Fellow for the law school’s Indian Legal Clinic, working closely with Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, the clinic’s director. 

“Through her focus on Arizona Native Vote, Torey has become a subject matter expert in the areas of election law and voting rights,” Ferguson-Bohnee said. “Her innovation, commitment and advocacy have been instrumental to protecting voting rights for all Arizonans. I am excited for her next chapter as a legal academic and how she will use her scholarship to address the complex problems facing Indian Country.” 

Additionally, Dolan serves as a board member of the National Native American Bar Association and the Arizona Democracy Resource Center. 

“I am incredibly honored to be chosen for this esteemed fellowship and to continue to build on the work that I’ve started in the Indian Legal Clinic around Native American participation in democratic systems,” she said. “As a student and a fellow at ASU, I have had the privilege of working directly with tribal communities and community organizations through the Arizona Native Vote Election Protection Project and have developed a deep appreciation for addressing the practical issues that tribal leaders, election administrators and community members face when participating in elections.” 

“With the mentorship I will receive during the Hastie Fellowship I will have the opportunity to produce in-depth scholarship that speaks to these practical issues to the benefit of practitioners and community members while educating the broader legal academy about tribal communities and Federal Indian Law,” Dolan said.

“I am grateful to ASU and the Indian Legal Program for the education, training and fellowship opportunity they have given me. I would not have had the confidence to pursue this opportunity without the foundation that ASU and the Indian Legal Program have provided. I am especially grateful to Clinical Director Patty Ferguson-Bohnee for inviting me into this work, her continual mentorship, sharing her passion with me and emulating the best practices in serving tribal communities in her work.”