Steven Andrew Light

Steven Andrew Light is Co-Director of the Institute for the Study of Tribal Gaming Law and Policy at the University of North Dakota, where he also is Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Political Science and Public Administration.

He is widely recognized as among the nation’s leading experts on Indian gaming, including the socioeconomic impacts of tribally owned and operated casinos on reservation life and tribal, state, and federal intergovernmental relations. His first book, Indian Gaming and Tribal Sovereignty: The Casino Compromise, was featured on C-SPAN2’s Book TV, and he has testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. He is a frequent media commentator on the politics of Indian gaming.

Light previously served as a Civil Rights Analyst in the Voting Section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, where he enforced the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Light and frequent collaborator Kathryn R.L. Rand blog on Indian gaming at indiangamingnow.com.