Event Archives

Book Talk: The Miracle of the Black Leg: Notes on Race, Human Bodies, and the Spirit of the Law

Patricia J. Williams, Distinguished Professor of Law and Humanities, Northeastern University and James L. Dohr Professor of Law Emerita, Columbia Law School.

Discussant: Stephen Rich, Maurice Jones, Jr.-Class of 1952 Professor of Law, USC Gould School of Law.

September 18, 2024

Click to view the Program (.PDF)

The USC Center for Law, History and Culture and the Gould School of Law present

Fighting for Citizenship in the United States
Was Justice Taney Right?
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Audio Recording

Click to view the Program (PDF)

The USC Center for Law, History and Culture and the Gould School of Law present

The 16th Annual Law & Humanities
Distinguished Lecture:
Can Freedom and Equality Stand Together?
Thursday, February 15, 2018

Click to view the Program (.PDF)

The USC Center for Law, History and Culture with co-sponsors, USC Dornsife Department of English, Gender Studies and Center for Feminist Research present

The 15th Annual Law & Humanities
Distinguished Lecture:
Law Sentiments
Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Click to view the Program (.PDF)

The USC Center for Law, History and Culture with co-sponsors,
USC Dornsife Department of History and Department of Classics
present

Citizenship in Times of Crisis Conference
Friday, April 1, 2016

Click to view the Program (.PDF)

The USC Center for Law, History & Culture and the Gould School of Law present
The 14th Annual Law & Humanities
Distinguished Lecture:
SECOND CLASS CITIZENS:
Dred Scott and the Roberts Court
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
4 - 5:30 p.m.

September 23
Katherine Franke (Columbia Law School)

Co-Sponsored by Program on Religious Accommodation

Topic: "Reframing Religious Exemptions: The Aftermath of Hobby Lobby"

Location: Faculty Lounge, Room 433, Time:12:15 - 1:30 p.m.

October 2
Book Panel Discussion- Angela Onwuachi-Willig (University of Iowa College of Law)

Topic: "According to Our Hearts: Rhinelander v. Rhinelander and the Law of the Multiracial Family" Flyer

Commentators: Camille Gear Rich (USC Law and Sociology) and Diana Williams (USC History and Law)

Moderator: Sam Erman (USC Law),

Location: Faculty Lounge, Room 433, Time:12:00 - 2:00 p.m.

October 15
Sherry Colb (Cornell University Law School)
Topic: "An Overlooked Interest Animating the Right to Abortion”

October 31
Nomi Stolzenberg (USC Law School)

Co-sponsored by Program on Religious Accommodation
Topic: "It's About Money: The Fundamental Contradiction of Hobby Lobby"

Location: Faculty Lounge, Rm 433, Time:12:15 - 1:30 p.m.

November 5
Chai Feldblum (Commissioner, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) Co-Sponsored by Program on Religious Accommodation

Topic: "The Right to Religious Accommodation: Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964"

Time: 12:00 - 1:30 p.m. Location: Room 7

November 12
Irene Tucker (UC Irvine, Department of English)

Topic: "Parting Ways with Judith Butler: A Brief Genealogy of Jewish Republicanism"

January 21
"The Charlie Hebdo Murders: Where From Here?" with Jessica Marglin (USC Religion), Olivia Harrison (French & Italian), Dean Philip Seib (Communication & Journalism), Muzammil Siddiqui (Imam, Garden Grove Mosque), and Sherman Jackson (King Faisal Chair of Islamic Thought and Culture). Hosted by the USC Center for Islamic Thought, Culture and Practice. Co-sponsored by CLHC, USC's Center for Religion & Civic Culture, and Office of Religious Life.

Location: Mudd Hall, Rm 101, Time: 2:00 - 5:00 p.m.

January 27
Steven Smith (University of San Diego) Topic: "Die and Let Live? The Asymmetry of Accomodation" Co-sponsored by Program on Religious Accommodation.

February 11
West Coast Law and Literature Conference on “Speaking, Believing, Incorporating: The History, Literature and Surprising Identitiy of the Modern Corporation” with Henry Turner (Rutgers, English) and Sarah Barringer Gordon (Penn Law & History). Commentator: Hilary Schor (USC English, Comparative Literature and Law). Co-sponsored by the Department of English, the Knight Program in Media and Religion, the Program on Religious Accommodation, and the Early Modern Studies Institute.
Location: Law School Faculty Lounge, Rm. 433,

Time: 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.

February 18
Intisar Rabb (Harvard Law School, Co-Director, Islamic Legal Studies Program), Topic: "Reform of Islamic Law by 1000 Amendments: Causes and Consequences of Iran's New Criminal Law Code." Co- sponsored by Program on Religious Accommodation.

March 4
CLHC Annual Law and Humanities Distinguished Lecture Featuring Margaret Jane Radin- Henry King Ransom Professor of Law (University of Michigan Law School). Topic: "From Baby-Selling to Boilerplate,"

Location: Town and Gown, Time:4:00 - 5:30 p.m.,

Reception to follow.
March 23 Douglas Nejaime (University of California, Irvine) & Reva Siegel (Yale Law School), Topic: “Conscience Wars: Complicity-Based Conscience Claims In Religion and Politics.” Co-sponsored by Program on Religious Accommodation
April 8 Anna Rosensweig (Provost's Postdoctoral Scholar, Humanities Department of French and Italian), Topic: "Exposing Private Liberty in Pierre Corneille's Last Tragedy."

April 15
Shaun Ossei-Owusu with Doheny Postdoctoral Scholar, Huntington- USC Institute on California and the West at USC, Topic: "Race, Bondage, and Help: Legal Aid's in the Institution of Slavery"

April 22 & 23
(Wednesday) - Symposium on Capital Punishment: "Execution, Spectacle, & Law" featuring Austin Sarat (Amherst College). Co-sponsored by Dornsife Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture and the Law School Faculty Workshops.

Location: Law School Faculty Lounge, Rm. 433, Time 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. Reception to follow

(Thursday) - Symposium on Capital Punishment: "A Short Film About Killings" and Panel Discussions.

Location: Ronald Tutor Campus Center, Room 227, Time 9:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Co-Sponsored by Dornsife Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture (CSLC) and the Law School Faculty Workshops

September 4
Jacob Soll (USC, Dept. of History and Accounting)

"Accounting, Accountability and the Origins of Modern Constitutional Law"

September 25
Anna Krakus (USC, Dept. of Slavic Languages and Literatures)

"Fear of the Files: Archive as Alibi in Post-socialist Poland"

October 16
Book Talk - Mitu Gulati (Duke, Visiting at USC) & Devon Carbado (UCLA)

"Acting White? Rethinking Race in 'Post-Racial' America" Time: 12:00 - 1:30 p.m.

Location: Faculty Lounge, Room 433 of the Law School

October 22
Martha Umphrey (Amherst College)

"The Liberal Arts of Law: A Conversation About Law in the Undergraduate Curriculum"

November 14
CLHC Law and Humanities Distinguished Lecture with

Mahmood Mamdani (Columbia University)

"Beyond Nuremberg: The Historical Significance of the Post-Apartheid Transition in South Africa" Flyer

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Location: Town & Gown. Reception to follow.

December 4
Ellen Wayland-Smith (USC Dornsife)

Topic: "Under Grace or Under Law: The Oneida Community and American Nineteenth-Century Religious Utopia"

January 29
Vincent Farenga (USC, Dept. of Comparative Lit. and Classics)

Topic: "Speaking with Authority about Justice: Theories of Justice and Literature Injustice"

February 12
Clare Pastore (USC Gould School of Law)

Topic: "Edwards v. California: When Paupers Became Persons"

February 26
Clyde Spillenger (UCLA School of Law)

Topic: "Toward a History of American Choice-of-Law Theory"

February 27
CLHC-PRA Lecture - Jack Rakove (Stanford History)

"Beyond Belief: The Radical Significance of the Free Exercise of Religion"

Co-sponsored by Interdisciplinary Research Group - Center for Religion & Civic Culture, Early Modern Studies Institute, Pacific Center for Health Policy and Ethics, and Levan Institute for Humanities and Ethics

Location: Law School, Room 130

Time: 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.

Reception to follow

April 9
Book Talk - Hilary Schor (USC, Dept. of English, Comparative Literature, Gender Studies and Law)

Topic: "Curious Subjects: Women & the Trails of Realism"

Commentators: Catherine Gallagher (UC Berkeley, English), Sarah Raff (Pomona College, English), and Norman Spaulding (Stanford Law), Moderator: Nomi Stolzenberg (USC Law)

Location: Law School, Room 433

Time: 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.

April 30
Book Talk - Sherman Jackson (USC, Religion and American Studies & Ethnicity Departments)

Topic: "Islamic Law and Political Violence"

Location: Law School, Room 433

Time: 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.

June 8 & 9
Law and Humanities Junior Scholars Workshop

Sponsored by USC Gould School of Law, Columbia Law School, UCLA School of Law, and Georgetown Law

Location: Law School, Room 433

Time: 8:00 - 5:00 p.m.

September 6
The 10th Annual Law and Humanities Distinguished Lecture, John Comaroff (University of Chicago) Title: "Divine Detection: Crime and the Metaphysics of Disorder" Location: Town & Gown Time: 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Reception to follow.

USC Gould School of Law, a State Bar of California-approved MCLE provider, certifies that this activity qualifies for minimum continuing legal education credit in the amount of 1 hour. This event may or may not meet the requirements for continuing legal education in other states. Please check with the bar association or Supreme Court in the state in which you are seeking credit to determine if the event is eligible.

September 12
Norga Morag- Levine (Michigan State University), Topic: "Facts, Formalism and the Brandeis Brief: The Making of a Myth"

October 10
Sven Beckert (Harvard University, History Department), Topic: "Labor Regimens After Emancipation: The United States Civil War and the Integration of the Global Countryside into the Empire of Cotton." This will be a joint workshop with the Center in Law, Economics and Organization.

October 17
Peter Baldwin (University of California, Los Angeles), Topic. "The Strange Birth of the Author's Moral Rights in Fascist Europe."

October 31
Kerry Abrams (University of Virginia School of Law), Topic: "A Legal Home: Derivative Domicile and Women's Citizenship."

November 13
Chimène Keitner (USC Gould School of Law, visiting from UC Hastings College of the Law), Panel Discussion, "The Paradoxes of Nationalism." Commentators: David Myers (UCLA History Department) And Patrick James (USC School of International Relations). This will be a joint workshop with the School of International Relations

November 28
Chris Brooks (Durham University in England, Distinguished Fellow at Huntington Library), Topic: Law and Revolution: "The Seventeenth-Century English Example."

January 23
Deborah Kamen (University of Washington), Topic: "Buying Freedom? Slave-Prostitutes and Legal Fictions in Ancient Greece."

February 6
Christelle Fischer-Bovet (University of Southern California), Topic: "Social unrest in Ptolemaic Egypt and in the Seleucid Empire: Balancing ethnic and socio-economic solidarities."

February 21
The 11th Law and Humanities Distinguished Lecture, Robert Gordan (Stanford Law School), Title: Markets, Morals, and Lawyers." Location: Town & Gown, Time: 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Reception to follow. Please rsvp to clhcserv@law.usc.edu.
March 6 Diana Williams (USC History & Law), Topic: "Plessy's Peers: Racial Determination and the Jim Crow Jury."

March 13
Jackie Stevens (Northwestern University), Topic: "We Citizens: Hannah Arendt and the Conundrums of the Nation-State."

April 3
Sam Erman (Harvard Law School Berger Fellow), Topic: "Reconstruction and Empire: Legacies of the U.S. Civil War and Puerto Rico Struggles for Home Rule, 1898-1917."
April 10 Brian Klopotek (University of Oregon), Topic: "Indian on Both Sides: Indigenous Identities, Race, and National Borders."

April 24
Nayan Shah (USC American Studies), Topic: "Stranger Intimacy: Contesting Race, Sexuality, and the Law in the North American West."

August 31
Reva Siegel - (Yale Law School), Topic: "Dignity and Sexuality: Claims on Dignity in Transnational Debate over Abortion Same Sex Marriage."

Other paper: "Before (And After) Roe v. Wade: New Questions About Backlash."

September 1
Book Panel Discussion: Catherine Fisk (UC Irvine Law School) Commentators: Paul Saint Amour (University of Pennsylvania, English) and Katherine Stone (UCLA Law),
Topic: "Working Knowledge," Location: Law School Faculty Lounge, Room 433. Time: 3:00 - 4:30 p.m. Reception to follow.

October 18
Adrienne Davis (Washington University School of Law), Topic: "Regulating Sex Work." Location: Law School Faculty Lounge, Room 433

November 16
Anne Dailey - (University of Connecticut School of Law), Topic: "The Psychodynamics of Surrogacy."

January 25
Rebecca Lemon (University of Southern California), Topic: "Sovereignty, Tyranny, and Shakespeare's Richard II," Co-sponsored by Early Modern Studies Institute.

February 8
Jody David Armour (USC Gould School of Law), Topic: "Nigger Lover: Luck, Law and Language in the Social Construction of Niggas."

March 6
Book Talk: Stuart Banner (UCLA), Topic: “American Property: A History of How, Why, and What We Own.” Chapters 1 "Lost Property," 3 "A Bundle of Rights" & 14 "The End of Property?" Commentators: Edward McCaffery and Peter Mancall, Location: Law School Faculty Lounge, Room 433

March 21
Nathan Perl-Rosenthal (University of Southern California), Topic: "Sailors Before the Law and the Unmaking of Maritime Cosmopolitanism, ca 1790-1799," Co-sponsored by Early Modern Studies Institute and USC History Department

March 28
Eleanor Brown (The George Washington University), Topic: "The Blacks Who 'Got' Their 40 Acres (Metaphorically): A Theory of West Indian Migrant Asset Acquisition."

April 25
Jessica Marglin (Princeton University), Topic: "Crossing Jurisdictional Boundaries in Nineteenth-Century Morocco."

September 1
Dario Mantovani (University of Pavia) Topic: "Slave law and law's autonomy On Roman legal reasoning."

September 22
Noel Lenski (University of Colorado) Topic: "Constantine and the Law of Slavery: Libertas and the Fusion of Roman and Christian Values."

October 13
Chris Tomlins (UC Irvine Law School) Topic: "Facies Hippocratica: The Law of Slavery in English America." USC Center for Law, History and Culture & USC Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute are joining together to present this workshop which will take place in the Faculty Lounge, room 433.

October 20
Jean Hébrard (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales-Paris, and visiting Professor at University of Michigan) Topic: “One Woman, Three Revolutions: Rosalie of the Poulard Nation” by Jean Hébrard and Rebecca Scott. Document of Registration of Freedom by. of Rosalie.

October 27
Martha Jones (University of Michigan) Topic: "Bearing Arms in Baltimore City: From Claims-making to Citizenship in the Era of Dred Scott.”

December 2
West Coast Law & Literature Conference, Sandra Macpherson (Ohio State University), Topic: "Harm's Way: Tragic Responsibility and the Novel Form." Commentators: Nan Goodman (University of Colorado) & Gary Watson (USC Law and Philosophy). Location: University Club: Banquet Room. Time: 12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

January 18
The 9th Annual Law and Humanities Distinguished Lecture, Janet Halley (Harvard Law School) Title: "What is Family Law? Marriage and Contract in the Rise of Legal Science"
Location: Town & Gown. Time: 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Reception to follow.

February 25 & 26
Conference on Law and Memory Location: Town & Gown. Time: 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. Schedule for Law and Memory

March 9
Roy Kreitner (Tel Aviv University) Topic: "Shifting the Ground of Monetary Politics: The Political Career of the Dollar."

March 23
Book Panel Discussion: Steven Wilf (University of Connecticut), Topic: "Law's Imagined Republic: Popular Politics and Criminal Justice in Revolutionary America." Commentator: Hilary Schor, USC English, Comparative Literature & Law. Location: Faculty Lounge, Room 433, Time: 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Reception to follow.

April 13
Susie Schmeiser (University of Connecticut School of Law), Topic: "Waiving from Death Row."

April 20
Book Panel Discussion: Kenji Yoshino (NYU Law School), Topic: "Shakespeare and the Rule of Law." Commentator: Rebecca Lemon Location: Faculty Lounge, Room 433, Time 12:20 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

April 27
Angela Onwuachi-Willig (The University of Iowa College of Law) Topic: "Introduction" and "Collective Discriminations," a chapter from "According to Our Hearts." Memo from Professor Willig.

September 2
Kurt Lash (Loyola Law School), Topic: "The Origins of the Privileges and Immunities Clause, Part I: "Privileges and Immunities" as an Antebellum Term of Art."

September 16
Assaf Likhovski (Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law, Visiting Professor at UCLA School of Law, 2009-10), Topic: "Transplanting British Income Tax Law to Mandatory Palestine."

October 2
Book Event - Barry Friedman (New York University School of Law), "The Will of the People: How Public Opinion has Influenced the Supreme Court and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution. " Commentators: Rebecca Brown and Laura Kalman.

October 21
Law and Identities Symposium - Speakers will include: Claudia Moatti (USC-Classics); Susan Lape (USC-Classics); Debra Blumenthal (UCSB-History); Ariela Gross (USC-Law) and Camille Gear Rich (USC-Law). Time: 12:00 - 6:00 p.m. Location: Law School Faculty Lounge, Room 433.

November 18
Sarah Stein (University of California Los Angeles), Topic: "Protected Persons? The Baghdadi Jewish Diaspora, the British State, and the Persistence of Empire."

January 13
West Coast Law & Literature Conference, Speakers: Victoria Kahn, Topic: "Political Theology and Liberal Culture: Strauss, Schmitt, Spinoza, and Arendt" (UC Berkeley, English), Julia Reinhard Lupton, Topic: "Arendt in Italy: Or, The Taming of the Shrew" (U.C. Irvine) and Bernadette Meyler, Topic: "Pardoning Revolution: The 1660 Act of Oblivion and Hobbes’ Recentering of Sovereignty" (Cornell Law School); Topic "Early Modern/Post-Modern: Inventing the Political Subject." Participants include: Aaron Kunin (Pomona College), Jayne Lewis (UC, Irvine), Debora Shuger (UCLA), Seth Lobis (Claremont McKenna College), and Nomi Stolzenberg (USC) Time: 2:00 - 6:00 p.m., Location: Faculty Lounge.

January 27
Melissa Murray (UC Berkeley School of Law), Topic: "Disestablishing the Family."

February 11
Russell Robinson (UCLA School of Law), Topic: "Gaydar: Race, Sexual Identity and Incarceration."

February 25
The 8th Annual Law and Humanities Distinguished Lecture, Professor Etienne Balibar (University of Paris & UC Irvine) Topic: "Humanism Without a Subject? Reflections on Anthropological Differences." Location: Town & Gown; Time: 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Reception to follow.

March 4
David Rabban (University of Texas School of Law), Topic: "Rethinking Classsical Legal Thought."

March 11
Darren Rosenblum (Pace Law School), Topic: "Unsex CEDAW: What's Wrong with Women's Rights?"

April 21
Amalia Kessler (Stanford Law School), (Cover Letter) Topic: "Civic Republicanism and the Rise of a Unified (Oral and Adversarial) Model of Procedure."

September 5
Alexandra (Sasha) Natapoff (Loyola Law School), Topic: "Discovering Guilt: The Politics of Information in the Criminal System."

September 26
Bernadette Meyler (Cornell Law School, Visiting UCLA Law School), Topic: "Daniel Defoe and the Written Constitution."

October 15
Michele Landis Dauber (Stanford Law School), Topic: "We Lost Our All." In addition to the paper is the Appendix.

October 24
Richard Ross (University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign College of Law), Topic: "Legal Communications and Imperial Governance: British North America and Spanish America Compared." Co-sponsored by the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute and The Irish & British Studies Institute.

November 8
Sixth Annual Law and Humanities Distinguished Lecture, Lecturer: Eric Foner (Columbia University, History Dept.), Topic: "The Idea of Freedom in American History." Location: Town & Gown. Time: 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. Reception to follow.

http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/news/november_2007/freedom.html

November 28
Yair Sagy (NYU School of Law), Topic: "Charles Francis Adams, Herbert Spencer, and the Railroad Problem."

February 13
Laurent Mayali (Boalt Hall School of Law, UC Berkeley), Topic: "On the Meaning of Words and Things: Semantics and Law in Medieval Jurisprudence."

February 21
Nancy Polikoff (American University School of Law), Topic: "Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families Under the Law." Location: Room 103 Time: 12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

March 5
Megan Reid (USC Dept of Religion), Topic: "Punishment and Appropriate Justice in Islamic Societies."

March 12
West Coast Law & Literature Symposium - "Banishment and Jurisdictional Identity in Seventeenth-Century New England." Keynote: Nan Goodman (University of Colorado, English Dept.)
This event will be held in the Faculty Lounge, Room 433 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Click here for the schedule.

April 2
Josephine McDonagh (King's College, London) Topic: "On Settling and Being Unsettled: Motion and Emotion in Dickens's Bleak House."

April 23
Carolyn Sale (University of Alberta, English Dept.), Topic: "‘The King is a Thing’: The King’s Prerogative and the Treasure of the Realm in Plowden’s Report of the 'Case of Mines' and Shakespeare’s Hamlet." I Coverletter

August 23
Mary Dudziak, (USC School of Law), Topic: "War Stories and the War Power"

September 15
Ariela Gross, (USC School of Law), Topic: "When is the Time of Slavery? The History and Politics of Slavery in Contemporary Legal Argument"

October 18
Cynthia Herrup, (USC, History Department), Topic: "The Qualities of Mercy, 1620-1680."

November 1
Bill Maurer, (UCI, Anthropology Department), Topic: "Revenue, Rule and the Revenue Rule: Toward an Anthropology of Taxation." Companion essay, Due Diligence and "Reasonable Man," Offshore.

November 8
Barry Friedman, (NYU Law School), Topic: "The Court and the Corporations, 1875-1895."

November 14
Thomas McGinn, (Vanderbilt University, Classics Department), Topic: "Something Old, Something New... Augustan Legislation and the Challenge of Social Control."

November 29
Cladia Moatti, (USC, Classics Department), Topic: "Roman Law and Local Law: Realpolitik in the Roman Empire"

January 18
Martha Minow, (Harvard Law School), Topic:
"Tolerance in An Age of Terrorism"

January 31
Susanna Blumenthal, (University of Michigan Law School), Topic: "The Default Legal Person"

February 14
Susan Lape, (USC Classics Dept.), Topic: "Before Race: Theorizing Athenian Citizen Identity"

February 28
Alejandro de la Fuente, (U. Pittsburgh History Department), Topic: "Slaves and the Creation of Legal Rights in Cuba: Coartación and Papel"

March 19
Naomi Mezey, (Georgetown Law School), Topic: "The Paradox of Cultural Property"

April 4
Carolyn Ramsay, (U. of Colorado Law School), Topic: "Scrutinizing the Historical Basis of Material Witness Detention"

April 12
John Litvak, (Tufts University), Topic: "UnAmericans"

April 18
Kif Augustine-Adams, (BYU Law School), Topic: "Making Mexico: Mexican Nationality, Chinese Race, and the 1930 Population Census"

May 1
Samuel Fleischacker, (University of Illinois-Chicago, Dept. of Philosophy), Topic: "What Exactly is a 'Right to Welfare'?

September 14
Georgia Warnke, (UC Riverside), Topic: "Race, Sex and Interpretation"

September 27
Karen Zivi, (USC), Topic: "Making Rights Claims: An Introduction"

December 5
Sarah Barringer Gordon, (University of Pennsylvania Law School and History Department), Topic: "The Almighty and the Dollar: Catholics, Protestants, and School Funding at Mid-Century"

December 7
Richard Primus, (University of Michigan Law School, Visiting Professor at NYU), Topic: "The Riddle of Hiram Revels"

January 18
Daria Roithmayr, (University of Illinois), Topic: "History Matters: Racial Cartels and The Dynamics of Early Advantage", and Book Proposal: Locked in Discrimination

February 1
Rebecca Lemon, (USC), Topic: "Arms and Laws in Shakespeare's Coriolanus"

February 23
Kenji Yoshino, (Yale Law School), Topic: "Imagining Utopias"

March 8
Anders Winroth, (Yale University, History Department), Topic: "Origins of Legal Education in Medieval Europe"

April 19
Jennifer Mnookin, (UCLA Law School), Topic: "Envisioning Evidence: Expertise and Visual Proof in the American Courtroom"

October 6
Anna Kirkland, (University of Michigan), Topic: "Identity and the Properly Functioning Individual: Imagining the Confluence of Fat Rights and Disability Law"

October 12
Michael Klarman, (University of Virginia Law School), Topic: "From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality"

October 22
John Witt, (Columbia University), Topic: "Crystal Eastman and the Internationalist Beginnings of American Civil Liberties"

November 3
Leti Volpp, (University of California, Berkeley, Visiting at UCLA), Topic: "Engendering Culture"

November 15
David Rabban, (University of Texas), Topic: "The American School of Historical Legal Thought: From the 1860s through Holmes and Pound"

January 24
Marianne Constable, (UC Berkeley, Department of Rhetoric), Topic: "The New Unwritten Law: Chicago Husband-Killing, 1895-1930"

February 7
Gregory Rowe, (University of Victoria), Topic: "Roman Law in Action"

February 15
David Bollier, (USC Annenberg School for Communication), Topic: "One of the Great, Unheralded Trends in American Culture Today, the Market Enclosure of the Cultural Commons"

March 4
Gregory Alexander, (Cornell University), Topic: "From Social Obligation to Social Transformation? South Africa's Experiment with Constitutional Property"

March 30
Scott Shapiro, (Cardozo School of Law), Topic: "Interpretation and the Economy of Trust"

October 3
Paul Saint-Amour, (Pomona College, English Dept.), Topic: "What Does It Mean To Call Literature Property"

October 22
Bert Lockwood, (Univ. of Cincinnati School of Law), Topic: "What would Eleanor Think?"

December 3-4
Frances Ferguson, (John Hopkins University, English Dept.), Topics: "Beliefs and Emotions: From Stanley Fish to Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill" (December 3) and "Pornography, The Theory" (December 4)

January 26
Bernard Bailyn, (Harvard University), Topic: "Dead Ends: The Dustbins of History"

February 10
Ruth Gavison, (Hebrew University, Fac. of Law), Topic: "Can Israel be both Jewish and Democratic?"

February 13
Judith Butler, (University of California, Berkeley, Departments of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature), Topic: "War at Home: the U.S. Patriot Act and the Problem of Sovereignty"

March 2
Jonathan Yovel, (University of Haifa, Faculty of Law), Topic: "Le droit du plus fort: law as metaphor and morality in Milton's Samson Agonistes"

March 5
Jonathan Yovel, (University of Haifa, Faculty of Law), Topic: "Language and Power in a Place of Contingencies: The Polyphony of Legal Argumentation"

March 9-10
Alexander Welsh, (Yale University, English Department), Topics: "Adam Smith's Impartial Spectator and What She Was Able to See" (March 9) and "Moralities of Obedience and Respect" (March 10)

March 24
Sharon Block, (University of California, Irvine, History Department), Topic: "Constructing Rape and Race in Early American Courts"

September 18
Stuart Banner, (UCLA Law School), Topic: "Manhattan for $24: American Indian Land Sales, 1607-1763,"

October 1
Gillian Brown, (University of Utah, English Department), Topic: "Thinking in the Future Perfect: Consent and Minority Rights"

October 25
Peter Brooks, (Yale, Department of Comparative Literature & French), Topic: "Inevitable Discovery"

November 11
Ron Harris, (Tel Aviv University), Topic: "The Uses of History in Law and Economics"

November 13
Ron Harris, (Tel Aviv University), Topic: "Corporate Personality and Corporate Culture: History and Ethics"

November 14
Ron Harris, (Tel Aviv University), Topic: "Jewish Democracy and Arab Politics"

January 24
Tamar Herzog, (Univ. of Chicago, History Dept.), Topic: "Good Immigrants/Bad Immigrants: Defining a Spanish Community in the Early Modern Period"

January 29-30
Nadera Kevorkian, (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Topics: "Judicial Conceptions of Female Child Sexual Abuse in Jordan" (January 29) and "Parallel Legal Systems and Virginity Tests" (January 30)

February 4
Judith Levine, (Author of "Harmful to Minors"), Topic: "Crimes of Passion: Statutory Rape & the Ambiguities of Sexual Consent"

February 18-19
Helena Michie, (Rice University, English Dept.), Topics: "Marriage and its Privacies: From Hardwicke to the Honeymoon" (February 18) and "Honeymoons and the Romance of the Archive" (February 19)

February 21
Jasonne O' Brien, (Fairleigh-Dickinson University), Topic: "Lest Justice Fail': Medieval Reprisals and the International Criminal Court"

March 5
Jared Diamond, (UCLA, Geography Dept.), Topic: "Why are Some Countries Rich, and Others Poor?"

April 22
Samuel R. Gross, (Univ. of Michigan), Topic: "Racial Profiling, Before and After September 11"

September 20
Brook Thomas, (University of California Irvine, English Department), Topic: "Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, Political Independence, Mugwumpery, and Civil Rights"

September 21
Leora Bilsky, (Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University), Topic: "The Death and the Maiden: Between Trials and Truth Commissions"

September 26
Adam Winkler, (USC Law School), Topic: "A Revolution Too Soon: Woman Suffragists and the 'Living Constitution,' 1869-1875"

October 10
Ronald Garet (USC Law School), Topic: "Our Ancient Faith: A Translation of the Declaration of Independence"

October 11
Nahum Chandler (John Hopkins University Humanities Center), Topics: "Originary Displacements" and "On Exorbitance: Colonialism, Law, and Subjection"

October 18
Timur Kuran (USC Economics Department), Topic: "The Islamic Commercial Crisis: Institutional Roots of the Delay in the Middle East's Economic Modernization"

October 19
Kim Scheppele (University of Pennsylvania) Topics: "Comparative Judicial Activism" and "Counter-Constitutions"

November 6
Hazel Lord (USC Law School), Topic: "Husband and Wife: English Marriage Law from 1750: A Bibliography Essay"

November 29
Reuven Firestone (Hebrew Union College), Topic: "Jihad, Fighting and 'Holy War' in Islam: Text and Interpretation in Comparative Perspective"

December 7
Ian Shapiro (Yale, Political Science Department), Topic: "Problems, Methods, and Theories in the Study of Politics, or What's Wrong with Political Science and What to Do About It (Rational Choice Theory in Politics and Law)"

January 25
Annelise Riles, (Northwestern University School of Law), Topic: "The Network Inside Out,", with commentaries by Doug Thomas (USC, Annenberg) and Nomi Stolzenberg (USC, Law)

March 6
Brenda Stevenson, (USC, History Department), Topic: "LaTasha Harlins, Joyce Karlin and Soon Da Ju: A Case Study"

March 20
Peggy Kamuf, (USC, French and Italian Department), Topic: "Democracy's Fiction: Everything, Anything, and Nothing at All"

March 26
Vicki Schultz, (Yale Law School), Topic: "The Sanitized Workplace" co-sponsored by the USC Law School Faculty Workshop

April 5
Michael Klarman (University of Virginia, Law School), Topics: "Neither Hero, Nor Villain: The Supreme Court, Race, and the Constitution in the 20th Century" co-sponsored by the USC Law School Faculty Workshop