Senior Lecturer in the Sanford School of Public Policy
Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Sanford School of Public Policy
Affiliate of the Duke Center for International Development
Associate of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society
Affiliate, Duke Global Health Institute
Education
JD, Yale Law School, 1992
BA, magna cum laude, Yale College, 1988
Catherine Admay taught at NYU Law School (1994-96) and Duke Law School (1996-2002) before joining, as visiting faculty, the departments of Political Science and Public Policy/Duke Center for International Development. Admay now serves as Lecturer of Public Policy and a Faculty Affiliate to Duke’s Global Health Institute. She co-founded NYU Law's first international law clinic (serving the government of Eritrea and civil society organizations) and founded and directed Duke Law School's first international development law clinic (serving the government of South Africa and civil society organizations). She has served as a legal consultant to the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission (report issued May, 2006) and as a legal scholar contributing to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (report issued October, 1998).
Admay worked for the Legal Resources Centre in Pretoria and Gazankulu, South Africa, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Office of the Legal Advisor in the United States Department of State, and with private law firms in Washington, D.C. and Seattle. She clerked for Hon. Betty Binns Fletcher of the United States Court of Appeals on the 9th Circuit in Seattle, Washington.
Admay's teaching and research interests are in the areas of human rights, law and development, global health, comparative constitutional law of socio-economic rights, conflict transformation, and interdisciplinary engagements with law (ethics, arts, storytelling).
In The News
Three Decker Award Winners on Engaging Students in Lifelong Learning - 4/28/2025
Three Undergraduate Faculty Win Inaugural Judith Deckers Teaching Award - 1/31/2025
Judith Deckers Prize Finalists Announced - 10/1/2024
Awards & Honors
Richard A. Stubbing Teacher Mentor Award. Sanford School of Public Policy. - 2018
The Susan Tifft Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring Award. Sanford School of Public Policy. - 2017
Excellence in Advising. Duke University. - 2016
Excellence in Teaching. Duke Global Health Institute. - 2012
Selected Publications
Admay, C. A., T. R. N. Thomas Nicholson, A. S. Aaron Shakow, and K. S. Salmaan Keshavjee. “Double Standards in Global Health: Medicine, Human Rights Law and Multidrug-Resistant TB Treatment Policy.” Health and Human Rights 18, no. 1 (June 21, 2016): 85–101.
Selected Grants
Re-Presenting Justice and the Constituting of Human Culture 2009 - 2010
Selected Courses
PUBPOL 816: Ethics and Policy-Making
PUBPOL 789: Master of International Development Policy Mini-Seminars
PUBPOL 761: Human Rights and Conflict
PUBPOL 646S: Strategic Storytelling: Narratives for Development