Seval Yildirim

Seval Yildirim is a Professor of Law, and UB’s Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence and Chief Diversity Officer.  A scholar of law and religion, Professor Yildirim also has extensive administrative experience in higher education, including in areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion, faculty and student recruitment and retention, promoting inclusive pedagogy and classrooms, community outreach and fundraising.

Professor Yildirim’s research and expertise center on issues related to human dignity, secularism in comparative contexts, Muslim identity and the law, populism and free speech.  Her current research explores patterns and formations of populism in comparative contexts, as well as the diminishing scope of free speech protections in the United States.  Her scholarship has been published in various journals and edited volumes, including the American Journal of Comparative Law, Pepperdine Law Review and Minnesota Journal of International Law.

Prior to UB, Professor Yildirim served as Vice President for Diversity Initiatives and Chief Diversity Officer at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs and Development and Co-Chief Diversity Officer at California State University, San Bernardino.  Before her senior leadership roles, Professor Yildirim held various positions as either faculty or visitor, including at Harvard Law School, University of California Berkeley School of Law, Villanova University School of Law and New York University.

In addition to her academic and administrative positions, Professor Yildirim has served as pro bono counsel and legal consultant on individual rights cases across the United States, working with various grassroots organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union.

Professor Yildirim holds a JD and LLM from New York University School of Law, an MA in International Affairs from George Washington University and a BA in Politics and Women’s Studies from Randolph-Macon Woman's College.