From Dr. Haley Duschinski
Director of the Center for Law, Justice & Culture
August 25, 2016
The Center for Law, Justice & Culture welcomes OHIO students, faculty, alumni, and friends to an exciting new academic year at Ohio University!
Dr. Haley Duschinski, Director of the Center for Law, Justice & Culture
The fall semester is under way, and the CLJC community has much to celebrate. Over the past three years, the Center has expanded significantly through support from the Ohio University College of Arts & Sciences. The CLJC administrative staff currently consists of myself and Larry Hayman (B.A. ’03), Ohio University’s Pre-Law Specialist and Advisor.
Our academic community now consists of 23 faculty affiliates, four cohorts of exceptional undergraduate certificate students, and an energetic student organization, Students for Law, Justice & Culture — all of whom share a fundamental commitment to examining law from a liberal arts perspective.
We extend our warmest welcome to new faculty member Dr. Kirstine Taylor, who is beginning a joint appointment as Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department and the Center for Law, Justice & Culture in fall 2016. Professor Taylor received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 2015. Her dissertation is titled Racial Violence and the Politics of Innocence: From the Postwar South to Post-Racial America. Since completing her degree, Kirstine has been a Postdoctoral Lecturer and Postdoctoral Prize Fellow at the University of Washington. She is teaching Politics of Race and Black Political Thought in fall 2016. We are looking forward to working with her at Ohio University!
We are proud to recognize and celebrate the achievements of the 2016 graduating class of the Law, Justice & Culture Certificate Program, our most selective program for high-achieving students pursuing specialized training in law and society studies. The application deadline for the 2016-2017 Certificate Program is October 21, 2016.
We are also proud of recent OHIO alumni in diverse law and justice fields who participated in the CLJC community during their time at Ohio University. Some of these alumni are in law school, some are in academic or professional M.A. programs, and some are pursuing careers in fields such as criminal justice, social justice, public policy, and international education. We encourage all alumni who were part of the CLJC community to stay connected to us through Facebook, Twitter, and our CLJC newsletter.
In the summer of 2016, the Center launched a new two-week residential Summer Law & Trial Institute (SLTI) for eighteen high school students. Directed by Larry Hayman, SLTI is the first high school program to directly address the complex legal challenges associated with social and economic inequality in Appalachian Ohio. The selective program targets high-achieving students from Appalachia, and it raises their critical awareness of issues relating to housing, property, natural resources, education, transportation, and access to justice in the region. This program is offered at no cost to students through generous alumni and faculty participation and a grant from the Ohio State Bar Foundation.
Through its interdisciplinary curricular theme Making and Breaking the Law, CLJC is offering special courses this year for undergraduate students interested in law and society studies. In fall semester, we are offering our third installment of the interdisciplinary gateway course for 80 freshman and sophomore students called CAS 2500: Breaking the Law. The course is co-taught by Dr. Haley Duschinski, Dr. Bruce Hoffman, Dr. Rosemary Nagy, and Dr. Marina Peterson. Dr. Vince Jungkunz is teaching our freshman Law, Justice & Culture Learning Community, Larry Hayman is teaching our freshman Pre-Law Learning Community, and Dr. Kathleen Sullivan is teaching our one-credit CAS 1300x: Themes in Action course. In the spring, Dr. Kevin Uhale will teach our special course for new certificate students, LJC 2000: Core Course in Law, Justice & Culture.
This academic year, we are celebrating the start of fall semester with our annual Constitution Day events. Dr. Renee Heberle, Professor of Political Science and Public Administration and Co-Director of the Program in Law and Social Thought at the University of Toledo, will deliver the Constitution Day lecture on “Dignity vs Rights: Exploring the Practical Effects of Constitutional Principles in US and German Prisons.” Her talk will be on Thursday, Sept. 29, at 5 p.m. in Scripps 111.
The Constitution Day lecture will be followed by a free Constitution Day campus concert, Freedom Sings! at 7 p.m. at Baker Theater.
We are now accepting applications for our fifth annual Spring Break Study Abroad Program on Human Rights, Law & Justice in Northern Ireland, directed by Dr. Haley Duschinski. We are hosting an information session on Thursday, September 15 at 5pm in Bentley Annex 007. The application deadline is Monday, October 3.
We are pleased to collaborate with the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies for a Homecoming Weekend Alumni Panel on Gender and the Law on Friday, Oct. 7. We are also pleased to collaborate with Scripps School of Journalism and other departments to bring Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Charlie Savage to campus to talk about politics in America on Wednesday, Oct. 19, at 7:30 p.m. in Schoonover 145.
Our annual Law Fair will be held on Thursday, Oct. 13, and our annual Pre-Law Day featuring panels of alumni lawyers will be held on Thursday, Nov. 3, and Friday, Nov. 4. Former Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court R. Marc Kantrowitz (B.A. ’72, M.A. ’74) will deliver the keynote address on Nov. 3. We are looking forward to spending time with Marc Kantrowitz during his return to Ohio University!
In collaboration with Students for Law, Justice & Culture, CLJC is launching our annual Critical Resistance event series on the theme Critical Resistance: Struggles for Access to Justice. You can learn more about our upcoming events through the Center Newsletter and our Facebook and Twitter pages.
We are pleased to introduce our 2016-2017 office team: Ashley Fishwick (English Pre-Law and Political Science majors), Jessica Roth (Sociology and War and Peace majors), and Casey Tisdale (Psychology and Sociology-Criminology majors with a minor in French and a certificate in Law, Justice & Culture). They will work with us on event planning, public relations, and alumni outreach. Anabel Suss, a third-year student at Humboldt University Law School of Berlin in Germany, will join us this fall semester as a Visiting Graduate Student Associate.
This year’s student leaders in the CLJC community include Anika Holland, Chair of the Board of the Center for Student Legal Services; Brendan Margolies, President of Students for Law, Justice & Culture; Paige Shoemaker, President of Phi Alpha Delta; and Casey Tisdale, President of Mock Trial.
The Center is open on the ground floor of Bentley Hall every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. We encourage everyone to please drop by to visit us, and to browse our Law, Justice & Culture library collection of books and videos. We also offer an extensive collection of law school and LSAT preparation materials. Larry Hayman offers walk-in advising hours every Wednesday from 1 to 4 p.m.
We hope that you will be able to join us, so that we will have the opportunity to talk in person. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to call, email, or visit us in Bentley Hall.
Warmest wishes,
Haley Duschinski
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Director of the Center for Law, Justice & Culture
Comments