Adjunct Law Professor
- JD, NEW YORK LAW SCHOOL
- MA, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE
- BA, UNIVERSITY OF ALBANY
Professor Ilene Durst has been teaching and practicing Immigration Law and Refugee & Asylum Law for over 40 years. She has been a Fulbright Specialist teaching Refugee Law at IIULER, Goa, India. She has taught at University of San Diego School of Law since 2020 and prior to that time, she taught for 25 years at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, including two summers at the Universite′ of Nice, France. Immediately after law school and prior to her academic career, Professor Durst clerked for the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court and practiced immigration law and civil
appeals.
Professor Durst’s scholarship focuses on interpretation of the refugee’s narrative and credibility and has been cited by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She also writes about how literature makes meaning of the law and legal actors. Professor Durst received her Juris Doctor summa cum laude from New York Law School, her Master’s of Fine Arts in English from the University of California, Irvine, and her Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from the University at Albany.