Deepa Das Acevedo

Deepa Das Acevedo is a legal anthropologist and a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches courses such as Employment Law, Employee Benefits (ERISA), Legislation & Regulation, Legal Anthropology, and Gig Work. She serves as a Trustee of the Law & Society Association (Class of 2024) and holds various editorial roles, including Associate Editor for the Law & Society Review and Contributing Editor for the Work Law section of JOTWELL. Her research combines ethnographic fieldwork with doctrinal and policy analysis, focusing on the law and politics of India as well as employment regulation in the gig economy. Currently, she is working on a monograph titled The Battle for Sabarimala, which examines issues of gender equality and religious freedom related to the Sabarimala temple in Kerala, India. Deepa has received support for her research from several prestigious organizations, including the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council. She has published articles in numerous academic journals and edited volumes, contributing significantly to the fields of legal anthropology and labor rights. Prior to her appointment at Penn Law in 2018, she was a Sharswood Fellow at the same institution. Deepa holds an A.B. in Politics from Princeton University and both a JD and PhD in Anthropology from The University of Chicago.