Professor Anastasia Boles, a tenured law professor at UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law, was named the 2024 UA Little Rock Faculty Excellence Award in Teaching honoree.
“All of us at the Bowen School of Law are terrifically proud to see Professor Boles recognized with this teaching award,” says Colin Crawford, dean of the William H. Bowen School of Law. “It is wonderful that her distinction in the classroom has earned her this honor from the university.”
Professor Boles was recently awarded the 2024 UA Little Rock Faculty Excellence Award in Teaching at Bowen, making her eligible for the overall honor bestowed by the university. The award in teaching was created to recognize, encourage, and reward superior teachers, distinguishing them as teachers who maintain high expectations of their students and who ensure academic rigor in their courses. Professor Boles was nominated for the award by Bowen faculty member and Dean Emerita, Theresa Beiner, who lauded Boles as a mastered and innovative teacher who provided culturally proficient legal instruction in her courses.
“My main goals as a law teacher are to help my students develop the intellectual rigor and analytical ability to evaluate any legal issue, and to learn effective lawyering skills,” Boles said in a personal statement. “My teaching style is focused on three core ideas: (1) teaching through the paradigm of culturally proficient legal instruction (2) leveraging best practices in teaching and learning literature, and (3) student mentoring.”
Boles also received high praise from students and alumni alike who noted the importance of leadership in the classroom and her mentorship beyond the classroom.
“I have been fortunate throughout my academic journey to encounter several exceptional educators who were unwavering in their commitment to my success, both within and beyond the confines of the classroom,” said Dominique Lane, a 2018 graduate of the Bowen School of Law. “Professor Boles imparted invaluable lessons…her approach was a perfect blend of patience and kindness coupled with firmness and challenge. I am undoubtedly a better lawyer and person for having had the privilege of being taught and mentored by Professor Anastasia Boles.”
In 2020, Boles was honored with a UA Little Rock Faculty Excellence Award in Public Service for her legal work addressing racial disparities and issues of inequality and inequity in the criminal justice system through community guidance and outreach and the development of training materials on cultural competency for law professors. The following year, Boles co-found the UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law Center for Racial Justice and Criminal Justice Reform to advance racial equity, access to justice, and fairness in Arkansas and the region beyond through legal research. Since its launch, the center has engaged more than 100 pre-law students through its programs and has produced community-engaged research including its court observation project, a project funded by a $1 million dollar grant from Walmart, Inc.
Professor Boles joined Bowen in 2012 after several years of private practice with corporate law firms in California and New York, and a short stint as an adjunct professor and faculty fellow at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego. Her practice focused on employment, labor, and securities litigation, as well as general civil litigation, and white-collar criminal defense. Boles graduated with honors from Stanford University and earned her law degree from Columbia Law School in New York.
