Professor Conkle teaches Constitutional Law, the First Amendment, and Law and Religion. His research addresses constitutional law and theory, religious liberty, and the role of religion in American law, politics, and public life. A 1979 graduate of the Ohio State University College of Law, Conkle clerked for Judge Edward Allen Tamm of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and practiced with the Cincinnati law firm of Taft, Stettinius & Hollister before joining the IU Maurer School of Law-Bloomington faculty in 1983. Professor Conkle has been honored for his achievements both within and beyond the classroom. He is a recipient of the Leon Wallace Teaching Award as well as the Trustees' Teaching Award, and he has twice won the Gavel Award for outstanding contribution to the graduating class. He also has received six faculty fellowships for outstanding scholarship. In 1999, he was named the Robert H. McKinney Professor of Law. In addition to his appointment in the Maurer School of Law, Conkle is an Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies and a Nelson Poynter Scholar at IU's Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions.