Martha Nussbaum holds appointments in the Law School, Philosophy Department, Divinity School, and the College. She is an Associate Member in Classics and Political Science, a Member of the Committee on Southern Asian Studies, the Coordinator of the Center for Comparative Constitutionalism, and a board member of the Human Rights Program.

Prior to joining the University of Chicago faculty, she was a University Professor at Brown University. From 1986 to 1993 she was a research advisor at the World Institute for Development Economics Research, Helsinki, a branch of the United Nations University. She is former President of the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association; she has chaired the Association's Committee on International Cooperation, its Committee on the Status of Women and its Committee on Public Philosophy.

She received her M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University in classical philology. Among her many books, the most recent are The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future (2007), and Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of America's Tradition of Religious Equality (2008). From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual Orientation and Constitutional Law will be published in February 2010.

She has also edited numerous books. Her Supreme Court Foreword, "Constitutions and Capabilities," appeared in 2007 and will ultimately become a book to be published by Harvard. Her current work in progress includes: Not For Profit: Liberal Education and Democratic Citizenship (Princeton); The Cosmopolitan Tradition (Harvard); Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach (Harvard); and Compassion and Capabilities (Cambridge).