Brenda Cossman

Brenda Cossman is Professor of Law at the University of Toronto. She joined the Faculty of Law in 1999, and became a full professor in 2000. She was Director of U of T's Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies from 2009-2018. She holds degrees in law from Harvard and the University of Toronto and an undergraduate degree from Queen's. Prior to joining the University of  Toronto, she was Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University.  

In 2012, Professor Cossman was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2009, she was awarded the Mundell Medal for contributions to letters and law. In 2002 and 2003, she was a Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. 

Professor Cossman's teaching and scholarly interests include family law, law and gender, and law and sexuality. Her most recent book The New Sex Wars: Sexual Harm in the Age of #MeToo was published by NYU Press in 2021. Her publications include Sexual Citizens: The Legal and Cultural Regulation of Sex and Belonging (Stanford University Press, 2007), the co-authored Bad Attitudes on Trial: Pornography, Feminism and the Butler Decision (University of Toronto Press) and Censorship and the Arts (published by the Ontario Association of Art Galleries).