Professor Cara Cunningham Warren Receives the James T. Barnes Sr. Memorial Faculty Scholar Award

Professor Cara Cunningham Warren is the 2023 recipient of the James T. Barnes Sr. Memorial Faculty Scholar Award. Each year, a full-time faculty member is chosen to receive this award based on scholarship, teaching excellence, and public service.

Professor Cunningham Warren studies how legal and institutional structures can be created or reformed to resolve sovereignty, balance of power, and good governance questions. She teaches Comparative Legal Writing & Analysis in the Canadian & American Dual JD Program, International law, and International Institutions & the Use of Force in the 21st Century.

“This is a professor who is always willing to meet with a student to discuss a question or assignment and makes sure that the student leaves feeling confident. She knows the content she teaches so very well, and yet she consistently manages to present it in a digestible, manageable way for students,” explained a student nominator. “Her excellence as a professor has inspired me to consider a future career in legal education more than anything or anyone else has.”

Most recently, Professor Cunningham Warren had her textbook, International Law in Context, published by Carolina Academic Press.

Professor Cunningham Warren joined the Detroit Mercy Law faculty in 2000. In addition to teaching the required first year Dual JD writing class and upper-level course work, she has served in a variety of administrative roles, including Assistant Dean of Academic Initiatives and Interim Assistant Dean of International Programs.