Gayle Binion is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she has been on the faculty since 1976. For 18 years (1976-1994) she chaired the interdisciplinary Law & Society Program, and from 1994 to 1996 was Director of the UCSB Washington (D.C.) Program. Professor Binion has served on a wide variety of Academic Senate committees at the divisional and systemwide levels. Binion's area of specialization is courts and politics and her research focuses on the role of the judiciary in the definition and contouring of civil rights and liberties, with special emphasis on principles of sociolegal equality across lines of gender, race and class. Her articles have been published in a wide variety of law reviews and social science journals. She has also written for the popular media, hosted a legal affairs radio program, and been executive director of a major public interest group. Over the past 20 years, Binion has served on numerous boards and committees of professional associations. Her undergraduate education was at the City College of New York (B.A., 1967) and her Ph.D. was earned at UCLA (1977).