Julie Dahlstrom, associate dean of experiential education, clinical professor of law, and director of the Immigrants’ Rights and Human Trafficking Program at the School of Law, is the recipient of the Metcalf Cup and Prize, Boston University’s highest teaching honor.

Accolades

LAW’s Julie Dahlstrom Wins 2026 Metcalf Cup and Prize

Honored for her work as director of the school’s Immigrants’ Rights and Human Trafficking Program

Julie Dahlstrom has won this year’s Metcalf Cup and Prize, Boston University’s highest teaching honor, for her work that takes law students out of the classroom to fight for the victims of human trafficking, including in the courts and the legislature. She will receive the award at the University’s 153rd Commencement on Sunday.

Dahlstrom is associate dean of experiential education, clinical professor of law, and director of the Immigrants’ Rights and Human Trafficking Program at the School of Law. 

“One of the exciting things about this focus is it allows students to really think critically about social issues in the world and how they can solve them as lawyers,” she says.

That means digging into cases of human trafficking for commercial sex, forced labor, and domestic servitude right here in Massachusetts—and their work goes beyond individual court cases. Dahlstrom supervised students in drafting state legislation in Massachusetts to benefit survivors of violent crime and—in collaboration with the state attorney general’s office—to create a web-based app now used to help investigators recognize human trafficking.

“Professor Dahlstrom pushes her students not only to become zealous advocates for their clients, but also to push the law itself in important, groundbreaking directions,” writes Angela Onwuachi-Willig, LAW dean and Ryan Roth Gallo Professor of Law.

Dahlstrom and associate director Sarah Sherman-Stokes, a clinical associate professor at LAW, run the Immigrants’ Rights and Human Trafficking Program, which was formed in 2017 by bringing together their separate clinics. 

“It’s what we think is a leading model in terms of not only the integration of legal disciplines,” Dahlstrom says, “but also in thinking about how issues of migration and inequality and issues of trafficking and exploitation connect. And how does the law either address them or exacerbate them?”

The current administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement often lands hard on trafficking victims, who may find themselves in legal limbo or facing deportation with few resources, in a situation they did not create, she notes.

“We’re seeing in real time now how people are more vulnerable to exploitation, and the legal structure that was set up to protect trafficking survivors or those vulnerable to exploitation is, in fact, being weaponized in many ways,” she says.

“Julie is unrelenting in her commitment to and advancement of experiential education. I have been so fortunate to co-teach with her,” Sherman-Stokes says. “Somehow she manages to instill lawyering skills, confidence, reflection, and intentionality in our students, while also engaging in innovative, thoughtful, and first-of-its-kind advocacy on behalf of survivors.”

Sherman-Stokes, the Metcalf Cup and Prize winner in 2020, will take over as director of the Immigrants’ Rights and Human Trafficking Program next year when Dahlstrom is on sabbatical.

A 2008 graduate of Boston College Law School, Dahlstrom was initially managing a refugee resettlement legal program in Worcester that focused on asylum and humanitarian issues, but not on trafficking. Then, she had a client in the program’s English classes who had been brought to the United States as a domestic worker for a wealthy family.

“That family was threatening her, coercing her, not paying her. She could barely leave the house,” Dahlstrom says. “And it was through that case that I discovered many of the misconceptions I had about who was a trafficking survivor and what rights they had and whether they had access to legal representation.”

She represented that client for a number of years to win compensation and settle her immigration status, including by engaging with federal law enforcement agencies.

“I discovered that the law was often insufficient in providing resources for these individuals, so many of them were not seen as trafficking survivors,” Dahlstrom says. “I think we have very salacious ideas of what exploitation is. And, in fact, the law provides for a broader definition, but you need access to lawyers.” 

For example, say an undocumented worker receives threats of deportation in the workplace. That is considered trafficking, because the legal definition includes coerced labor. 

After starting a trafficking program in Worcester, Dahlstrom moved on to Casa Myrna, Boston’s largest provider of shelter and supportive services to domestic violence survivors, where she represented trafficking survivors. In 2012, she approached BU’s School of Law to start the second national Human Trafficking Clinic. She became a lecturer and, in 2017, a full-time faculty member. (That clinic later merged with Sherman-Stokes’ Immigrants’ Rights Clinic to create their combined program.)

“We’ve done a lot of work also on the criminalization of survivors of trafficking, who are often made to engage in a criminalized conduct and end up being seen as a perpetrator of violence, rather than as a victim or survivor,” Dahlstrom says. “Even when we solve the immigration mess, there are still other issues of vulnerability. If you can’t find employment because of your criminal record or other factors, it can be difficult to get out of the situation.”

She is especially proud of the program’s efforts to pass state legislation to address some of these issues, including efforts to vacate criminal convictions for victims that result from trafficking, or a bill that recently came out of committee that provides compensation around lost wages for those who experience trafficking, giving them financial resources for a fresh start. 

A gift from the late Arthur G. B. Metcalf (Wheelock’35, Hon.’74), a BU Board of Trustees chair emeritus and former professor, funds the Metcalf Cup and Prize and the Metcalf Awards for Excellence in Teaching, created in 1973 as the University’s highest teaching awards. The Metcalf Cup and Prize winner receives $10,000; the Metcalf Award winner(s), $5,000.

A University committee selects winners based on statements describing nominees’ teaching philosophy, supporting letters from colleagues and students, and classroom observation of the nominees. Monica A. Pessina, a clinical associate professor of anatomy and neurobiology at Boston University’s Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, will receive this year’s Metcalf Award.

“I actually could not have imagined winning this,” Dahlstrom says of her Metcalf honor, “because I think it’s just such an incredible recognition of the value of teaching, of the importance that we place on teaching in the institution.”

Find more information about Commencement 2026 here.