Previous New Legal Realism News and Events 2020

  • The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation is making available a number of $5,000 fellowship awards to support research and writing in American legal history by early-career scholars. Early career generally includes those researching or writing a Ph.D. dissertation (or equivalent project) and recent recipients of a graduate degree working on their first major monograph or research project. The Committee for Research Fellowships and Awards of the American Society for Legal History reviews the applications and makes recommendations to the Foundation. Applications are due by July 1, 2020. Complete guidelines and instructions regarding how to apply for such fellowships are located on the website of the American Society of Legal History at  https://aslh.net/award/cromwell-fellowships/
  • The School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, invites applications for scholars to be in residence for the full academic year to pursue their own research. The 2021-2022 theme will be “Political Mobilizations and Social Movements.” Applications must be submitted through the Institute’s online application system and can be found on the application page.
  • Law and Society Association 2020 Annual Meeting (May 28- May 31, 2020):  LSA Collaborative Research Network #28: New Legal Realism is hosting several virtual panels at the Annual Meeting this year. The schedule for CRN 28 events is available here!
  • Applications for the ABF/Northwestern Doctoral Fellowship in Law & Social Science for the 2020-21 academic year are accepted now. Applicants should be outstanding Northwestern students who are candidates for Ph.D. degrees in the social sciences or related fields. The ABF/Northwestern Doctoral Fellowship applications are reviewed by a committee of American Bar Foundation scholars along with the Northwestern University’s Provost Office. Final selection is made by the American Bar Foundation’s Doctoral Fellowship Committee. Applicants must have completed all doctoral requirements except the dissertation by September 1, 2020. Doctoral and proposed research must be in the general area of sociolegal studies or in social scientific approaches to law, legal institutions, the legal profession or social justice. The research must address significant issues in the field and show promise of a major contribution to social scientific understanding of law and justice.  Deadline: Feb. 15, 2020.  Click here for additional information and how to apply.
  • Applications are now accepted for the ABF Doctoral Fellowship in Law & Inequality for the 2020-21 academic year. The American Bar Foundation (ABF) will support one pre-doctoral fellowship. The ABF is committed to developing the next generation of scholars in the field of law and social science. The purpose of this fellowship is to encourage original and significant empirical and interdisciplinary research on the study of law and inequality. Deadline: Feb. 15, 2020.  Click here for additional information and how to apply.
  • Applications for the ABF/AccessLex Institute Doctoral Fellowship Program in Legal & Higher Education for the 2020-21 academic year are now open. The American Bar Foundation (ABF), in partnership with AccessLex Institute, is committed to developing the next generation of scholars interested in empirical and interdisciplinary research on legal and higher education. The purpose of the fellowship is to assist emerging scholars who are studying issues of access, affordability, or value in legal and higher education. This doctoral fellowship program seeks to assemble and coordinate a professional network of scholars who will produce innovative, objective, empirical and interdisciplinary research in the field. Deadline: Feb. 15, 2020.  Click here for additional information and how to apply.
  • The Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Tel Aviv University is happy to announce its call for Post-Doc and Doc Fellowship applications for the academic year 2020-21. Applicants from all disciplines and fields, including economics, social sciences, business, the humanities, and the law are encouraged to apply. The Edmond J. Center Safra stands at the forefront of academic research in the critical and multidisciplinary interface between market, ethics and law. We promote a variety of activities, designed to stimulate dialogue, to exchange and advance knowledge, and to explore new ideas. Above all, we aim at gaining new insights that will strengthen our understanding of the various markets in which we operate and contribute to making them fair and just. The Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics cohort of fellows represents a diverse group of young scholars from top institutions. Alongside their research, the fellows participate in a set of advanced research seminars and in a weekly colloquium to discuss foundational texts and present their personal projects. The Center collaborates with the fellow Center at  Harvard University and is proud of the all-star international advisory board composed of distinguished experts in law, political science and philosophy. Please check our website for more information.
  • Postdoc Position at the Faculty of Law, Hebrew University of Jerusalem: A postdoctoral fellowship at the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University is available for the academic year of 2020-2021. The position is part of the “Old Identities, New Times: Does the Common Legal Identity Withstand Modernity?”, a research project headed by Dr Sharon Shakargy and funded by the Israeli Science Foundation (grant 835/18). The research project deals with items of personal status, such as age, sex, religion, marital status, parenthood, legal capacity, and the changes in the regulation and perception thereof. The project investigates these items of personal status comparatively, focusing on Western legal systems but not limited to them. More details on the project are available here. Scholars interested in perusing independent work related to the questions mentioned above are invited to apply.  Qualifications: 
    • Candidates’ doctoral dissertation has focused on, or closely connected to, family law, comparative private law, private international law (conflict of laws).
    • Candidates will have submitted their doctoral dissertation by the starting date of the postdoctoral position. 
    • Good knowledge of German, French or English private law/ family law is an advantage.
    • Candidates must have an excellent command of the English language. Other relevant languages are an advantage. No Hebrew proficiency is required.  Position Details: 
    • The position is available starting from October 18, 2020, for a minimum of 3 months and a maximum of 12 months.
    • Regular participation in workshops and other academic activities is expected throughout the academic terms.
    • The compensation is a stipend of 10,000 ILS/ Month (~$US 2890; €2620). Health insurance, travel, accommodation and any other expenses are not covered. Interested applicants should submit a 2-page long research proposal, their CV and publication list, and 1-2 letter(s) of recommendation to Sharon.Shakargy@mail.huji.ac.il by March 15, 2020. Please indicate “postdoc position” in the subject line. 
  • The Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy invites applications for Mid-Career or Senior Fellowships in Interdisciplinary Legal Studies for one or two semester terms during the 2020-2021 academic year. The Baldy Center plans to appoint up to two fellows. Mid-Career and Senior Fellowships are awarded to established scholars who wish to work at the Baldy Center, typically during a funded sabbatical or research leave. Awardees will receive a living expense allowance of $1,800 per month during the period of their residence as well as limited relocation assistance. Senior Fellows typically spend one semester in residence, but other terms are possible. Applications are due Friday, March 20, 2020 by 5pm US Eastern time. Please visit the Baldy Center Fellowships application webpage for application guidelines, requirements, and the online application portal.
  • The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation: Two fellowships now accepting applications:
    The Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships Deadline: November 15, 2019
    Designed to encourage original and significant study of religious and ethical values in fields across the humanities and social sciences, the 2020 Newcombe Fellowships are available to Ph.D. and Th.D. candidates who expect to complete their dissertation between April and August 2021. Download the program flyer here. Questions may be directed to hogans@woodrow.org.

    The Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders Award
    Deadline: December 2, 2019
    Supports tenure-track junior faculty as they work toward achieving tenure. Applicants must successfully pass their third-year review or equivalent, no later than January 31, 2020. The program is open to faculty in any field of the humanities or social sciences; preference will be given to those working on 20th- and 21st-century American history, politics, culture, and society, with emphases including African American issues, women’s issues, and/or higher education. Download the program flyer here. Questions may be directed to facultyleaders@woodrow.org.
  • Call for Applications: 2020-2021 LAPA Fellowships: The Program in Law and Public Affairs (LAPA) at Princeton University invites outstanding faculty members of any discipline, independent scholars, lawyers, and judges to apply for a residential research fellowship for the academic year 2020–2021. LAPA Fellows devote the major portion of their time to their own research and writing on law-related subjects of empirical, interpretive, doctrinal and/or normative significance. All applicants must have received a doctorate, juris doctor, or an equivalent professional degree at the time of submission of the fellowship application. Successful LAPA applicants should demonstrate substantial expertise in law-related matters. The program does not support, as a primary activity, off-site fieldwork or work in remote archives, development of course materials, work in legal practice, or residence elsewhere. For additional information see: http://lapa.princeton.edu/fellowships  Candidates must submit an online application here. THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION IS 11:59 PM (EST) NOVEMBER 13, 2019.
  • APLA Graduate Student Paper Prize:The Association for Political and Legal Anthropology (APLA) Board invites individuals who are students in a graduate degree-granting program (including M.A., Ph.D., J.D., LL.M., S.J.D. etc.) to send papers centering on the analysis of political and/or legal institutions and processes. These papers should be original and not submitted previously for publication. Papers must be submitted by July 1, 2019. Submission requirements are detailed on the APLA website.
  • Law and Society Association 2019 Annual Meeting (May 30- June 2, 2019):LSA Collaborative Research Network #28: New Legal Realism hosted several panels and events at the Annual Meeting this year. The schedule for CRN 28 events is available here!
  • Marc Hertogh, Professor of Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands and CRN 28 member, would like to announce publication of his new book, Nobody’s Law: Legal Conciousness and Legal Alienation in Everyday Life.  He will be hosting an Author Meets Reader about the book at the LSA Meeting on Saturday, 6/1 at 11:50-12:35pm.Book Synopsis: Nobody’s Law shows how people – who are disappointed, disenchanted, and outraged about the justice system – gradually move away from law. Using detailed case studies and combining different theoretical perspectives, this book explores the legal consciousness of ordinary people, businessmen, and street-level bureaucrats in the Netherlands. The empirical research in this study tells an original and alternative narrative about the role of law in everyday life. While previous studies emphasize the law’s hegemony and argue that it’s ‘all over’, Hertogh shows that legal proliferation makes it harder for people to know, and subsequently identify with, the law. As a result, official law has become increasingly remote and irrelevant to many people. The central finding presented in this highly topical text is that these developments signal a process of ‘legal alienation’— a gradual and mundane process with potentially serious consequences for the legitimacy of law. A timely and original study, this book will be of particular interest to scholars in the fields of law and society, socio-legal studies and legal theory.  
  • Call for Applications/Nominations: Scientific Director of the International Institute for the Sociology of Law. The International Institute for the Sociology of Law, IISL, Onati, is issuing a call through the Research Committee for the Sociology of Law of the International Sociological Association for nominations for the position of Scientific Director of IISL. The 2-year term of the present Scientific Director (SD)at IISL Onati will end in August 2020 for a start of the new Director in September 2020. All scholars working in the field of studies on law and society around the world are invited to submit their application as candidate to Scientific Director of the IISL for the year 2020 to 2022.If you are willing to be nominated and serve, please send a letter of motivation, your CV and a list of publications by 1 July 2019 to the chair of the RCSL Nominating Committee, Mavis Maclean, at mavis.maclean@spi.ox.ac.uk. For additional information and application details, click here: Call for Applications IISL
  • Call for Applications: Baldy Fellowships in Interdisciplinary Legal Studies 2019. The Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy, the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, plans to award several fellowships to scholars pursuing important topics in law, legal institutions, and social policy. Applications are invited from junior and senior scholars from law, the humanities, and the social sciences. Deadline is February 1, 2019.  For additional information and application details, click here: Baldy Fellowship 2019.  
  • Law and Social Inquiry 2019 Graduate Student Paper Competition Now Open! The editors ofLaw & Social Inquiry are pleased to announce the annual competition for the best journal-length paper in the field of law and social science written by a graduate or law student. Law & Social Inquiry publishes empirical and theoretical studies of sociolegal processes from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Entries will be accepted starting January 1, 2019 and must be received by March 1, 2019. Submission details here.  
  • Undergraduate Research Diversity Fellowships in Law and Social Science:  The American Bar Foundation is looking for undergraduate students interested in a research-oriented career in law and social science to apply for two distinct fellowship opportunities: the Summer Research Diversity Fellowship (SRDF) (Summer 2019) and the LSAC Research Diversity Fellowship (June 2019-May 2020). These fellowships offer exemplary undergraduates the chance to work with one of our ABF Research Professors on a specific research project and participate in various seminars at the ABF. Recipients will also have the unique opportunity to visit and engage with social justice nonprofits, law firms, and criminal courtrooms, as well as sit in on graduate level classes and meet with admissions representatives from local law schools in Chicago. All Fellows will work at the ABF offices in Chicago. Interested? Learn more here.  Application deadline: Feb.15, 2019.  
  • ABF’s 2019-2020 Neukom Fellows Research Chair in Diversity and Law Applications Now Available: The American Bar Foundation (ABF) invites applications for its William H. Neukom Fellows Research Chair in Diversity and Law for the 2019-2020 academic year. This is a visiting position for a year, though there may be flexibility regarding time and start dates. The ABF anticipates that the Neukom Chair will become a long-term position in the future. Review of applications will begin on December 15, 2018, but the search will be ongoing until the position is filled.  More information about the position and the application process can be found on the ABF website.