The Forum on Law and Legalities

The goal of the Forum on Law and Legalities is to gather scholars and students across disciplines to discuss historical and contemporary issues related to the nature, structure, and effects of legal discourse and practice. Through rigorous comparison across regions and methodologies, the mission of this forum is to wrestle with a generative ambivalence: critically assessing the ways in which law serves to legitimate, reify and reproduce social and political inequalities while recognizing that, in its contradictions, it may also serve to disrupt and contest unjust systems and institutions. The project’s objects of study are by consequence thematically broad, but grounded by a central, interpretive concern: how can the study of law specifically help illustrate with greater clarity the desires, interests and forces that give shape to both today’s and yesterday's social and political realities?

The meetings of this forum will have the following format: in each session, scholars–at the professorial level or in graduate training–will have the opportunity to present pre-circulated working papers, book chapters or book projects to a seminar-size audience. The forum will be open to advanced undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty. After brief introductory remarks, discussion will be opened to forum attendees for questions and feedback. The forum will also coordinate with each session’s presenters for the opportunity to give a guest lecture in relevant courses, depending on thematic fit and availability. In this way, undergraduate participants would be provided with the chance to join the project in both a more traditional lecture format as well as a more intimate workshop setting, depending on interest.