Douglas Cantor holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago with specializations in Urban Politics, Public Law, and Constitutional Law. His dissertation, Terms for Debate, examined movements for term limits at the local level of American politics and situated the story of term limits within the history of municipal reform. He also holds a M.A. in Legal Studies from the University of Baltimore, a B.A. from Rutgers University in Political Science, and an A.A. in Journalism from Brookdale University. He has taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Northern Illinois University, California State University - Long Beach, and Loyola Marymount University. 

Professor Cantor's research interests primarily focus on term limits, an important lens through which to view the political reform tradition in America, and water politics, notably lead pipe crises in the Midwest and Northeast, and the politics of water contestation in the American Southwest and Pacific. His teaching and research interests include Constitutional Law, water law and policy, housing law and policy, urban politics, American politics, privatization, and judicial politics.