Cecelia M. Klingele

Cecelia Klingele is Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she teaches courses in criminal law, Constitutional criminal procedure, policing, and sentencing and corrections. She also teaches courses for law students and undergraduates on Catholic Legal Thought and the Social Encyclicals. Since 2024, she has served as Director of the Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy. She is also a faculty associate of the La Follette School of Public Affairs and the Integrated Liberal Arts Studies program (ILS). 

Professor Klingele’s research focuses on the challenges of structuring and managing human behavior, particularly the behavior of those subject to the criminal legal system and those responsible for its operation. Her past work has focused on challenges in community corrections, correctional programming interventions, and the treatment of violence within the criminal legal system.

She earned her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison before receiving her J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 2005. Professor Klingele served as a law clerk in numerous U.S. courts, including the United States Supreme Court, before returning to the University of Wisconsin in 2009 as a visiting assistant professor, and has been a permanent faculty member since 2011. 

Research Interests:

Criminal Law
Constitutional Criminal Procedure
Human Behavior
Community Corrections