Spring 2024 Class Schedule
To read course descriptions, click on the course titles below.
Note that courses are subject to change.
Course | Title | Instructor | Day/Time | |
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LEGAL_ST 101-8 | First-Year Writing Seminar: TBD | Jesse Yeh | MW 9:30-10:50 | |
LEGAL_ST 101-8 First-Year Writing Seminar: TBDDescription coming soon.
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LEGAL_ST 207-0-20 | Legal Studies Research Methods (also SOCIOL 227) | Jesse Yeh | TTH 11:00-12:20 | |
LEGAL_ST 207-0-20 Legal Studies Research Methods (also SOCIOL 227)Legal Studies Research Methods introduces students to research methods used in interdisciplinary legal studies, including jurisprudence and legal reasoning, qualitative and quantitative social science methods, and historical and textual analysis. The course is a prerequisite for the Advanced Research Seminar in Legal Studies, 398-1, - 2, and is intended to prepare students for the design of their own research project to be conducted in 398-1, -2. Through exposure to and engagement with interdisciplinary research methods on law and legal processes, the course will provide students with a deeper understanding of law in its historical and social context. The course will provide students with a set of research tools with which to conduct research on legal institutions. The course builds on content from Legal Studies 206, a prerequisite for 207. While part of the Legal Studies major sequence, the course will enrich the analytic skills of students from many fields who are interested in law or in interdisciplinary research methods. (Pre-Req: Legal_St 206 "Law & Society") | ||||
LEGAL_ST 376-0-20 | Topics in Legal Studies | Abigail Barefoot | MW 2:00-3:20 | |
LEGAL_ST 376-0-20 Topics in Legal StudiesThis is a special topics course - Topic title and description will be posted soon. | ||||
LEGAL_ST 376-0-20 | The Crime Centered Documentary (also HUM, RTVF) | Debra Tolchinsky | MW TBD | |
LEGAL_ST 376-0-20 The Crime Centered Documentary (also HUM, RTVF)In this course, we will view non-fiction and hybrid films that revolve around crime, criminal justice, and criminal court cases. Our emphasis will be on cases that are either mired in controversy and/or emblematic of wider social concerns. Readings will accompany viewings and experts will weigh in with legal, philosophical or scientific perspectives: What is accurately depicted? What is omitted? What is misrepresented? Concurrently, we will investigate the films aesthetically: How is the film structured and why? What choices are being made by the filmmaker in terms of camera, sound and editing and how do these choices affect viewers? Throughout the course, we will consider the ethics of depicting real people and traumatic events. We will also look at specific films in regard to their legal or societal impact. Assignments will include a series of short response papers and a substantial final project, which can take the form of either (up to the student) a final 12-15 page paper or an 8-12 minute film. The final should center upon a legal topic. Ideas include, but are not limited to: A comparison of two films depicting the same criminal case, a polished/edited interview with a person somehow connected to a crime, an investigation of a local court or legal advocacy center. Group projects (two people max) will be allowed. | ||||
LEGAL_ST 383-0-20 | Gender, Sexuality and the Carceral State | Abigail Barefoot | MW 2:00-3:20 | |
LEGAL_ST 383-0-20 Gender, Sexuality and the Carceral StateThis course explores the rise of the carceral state in the United with particular attention to ethnographic, sociolegal, feminist, queer, and transgender theoretical approaches to the study of prisons. The course centers on girls, women, and LGBT people’s experiences with systems of punishment, surveillance, and control. In addition, students will learn how feminist and queer activists have responded to institutions of policing and mass incarceration; investigate how they have understood prison reform, prison abolition, and transformative justice; and consider the political, ethical, and methodological concerns that policing, and mass incarceration raise. | ||||
LEGAL_ST 394-LK-20 | Lawyering: Education and Practice | Seth Meyer | M 10:00-12:50 | |
LEGAL_ST 394-LK-20 Lawyering: Education and PracticeAttorneys are central to American life and popular culture, but the profession is undergoing dramatic change. For years, the supply of lawyers has vastly outstripped the demand for legal jobs and the resulting lawyer bubble has grown. Meanwhile, those who land law jobs have different challenges: recent surveys report many attorneys' growing disenchantment with their work and dissatisfaction with their lives. This seminar will examine the profession's multidimensional crisis. What changes occur in attorneys, both individually and systemically, emerging from law schools and finding their roles in the legal realm? Why is working within the most lucrative big firms now regarded by many as the pinnacle of private practice? What other options are available? It will explore life after law school, examining the disparate places law graduates might find themselves. The course invites prospective law students to consider their potential places, as individual lawyers, in what remains a noble profession. It also invites those students in other undergraduate disciplines who may be curious about trajectories open to them in this post-graduate academic and, ultimately, career field. | ||||
LEGAL_ST 394-LK-21 | Human Rights & US Refugee Law | William Schiller | T 6:00 pm - 8:50 pm | |
LEGAL_ST 394-LK-21 Human Rights & US Refugee LawThe objectives in this course are: 1) to learn about international human rights conditions and refugee law mechanisms in the United States, through ongoing research related to asylum claims that will be presented at the end of the quarter in a trial; and 2) to become familiar with the diverse work of refugee-related professionals, including individuals who perform documentation-gathering, advocate for legal and public policy, and provide health care for asylum-seekers in the United States. In this class, you will be introduced to fundamental tenets of international human rights law and its domestic counterpart, U.S. asylum law. You will build upon this foundation for the remainder of the course by researching two asylum claims involving refugees from two countries, which you will present in mock hearings at the end of the course. |