The Faculty Lounge

Martha Jones on Thirteenth

Martha Jones of the University of Michigan has a new essay up on Ave DuVernay's 13th.  It begins: 

Before you sit down to watch 13th, director Ava DuVernay’s new film about mass incarceration, take off your historian’s hat. This is no scholarly lesson about the past. Instead, DuVernay takes us on an exploration that she hopes will, first and foremost, shock. Once it has your attention, 13th mobilizes the power of the visual and the sonic, along with human stories, to teach about hope and our capacities to work toward change in a way that no historical text could.

Read the rest here.

Using Cognitive Psychology to Improve Student Performance, Part Five: Putting it All Together.

This series has addressed four concepts from educational and cognitive psychology: (1) retrieval practice (“the testing effect”); (2) metacognition and self-regulated learning; (3) spaced repetition; and (4) cognitive schema theory. Each of these concepts alone can improve students’ performance in law school and on the bar. Together, they can make an enormous difference. The problem is that it’s hard to convince students to use these methods when so many forces convey the message that they should stick to popular but antiquated and ineffective methods.

In this post, I’ll describe a number of specific methods that differ from traditional ones but improve students’ success in law school. In my final post, I’ll do the same in the context of bar exam study.

Indiana Tech Law Closing This Spring

The ABA announcement is here.  The school will close June 30, 2017.  It would have been difficult to imagine a tougher time for Indiana Tech to have started a new law school.  Now the school will be required to implement a "teach-out" plan.  A news story is here.  The school's Q&A is here.

Rutgers Law Seeks Social Justice Oriented Faculty

This just in:

Rutgers Law School seeks candidates with a demonstrated commitment to social justice, as reflected in their scholarship and research, for tenured-faculty positions in its Newark location. Candidates should have a record of excellence in legal scholarship, teaching, and institutional service. Experience in legal practice, policy advocacy, or other forms of applied research related to social justice is also a plus. The Law School values faculty diversity and strongly encourages candidates from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds to apply.

This hiring initiative is funded by the Rutgers University-Newark (RU-N) Chancellor to enhance the university's strategic plan (see here) of fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and engagement across RU-N's academic departments and to promote RU-N's role as an anchor institution that leverages its scholarly expertise and civic interest to advance opportunity in and around the greater Newark metropolitan area. Thus, candidates ideally should have an interest in participating in cross-disciplinary initiatives within RU-N, in partnering with communities and organizations outside the university, and/or in advancing opportunity in and around the greater Newark metropolitan area.

Full details are here.

Mercer Law Seeks New Dean

This just in:

Mercer University seeks an outstanding individual to become the next Dean of the School of Law. The Dean is the chief academic and administrative officer for the Law School and reports directly to the Provost of the University. The anticipated start date is July 1, 2017.

Mercer University School of Law is a private law school located in Macon, Georgia with some programs on the University’s Atlanta campus. Founded in 1873, the School of Law was approved by the ABA in 1925 and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. It has a student body of approximately 400 J.D. students, a living alumni base of over 6,000, and a longstanding commitment to excellence and innovation in legal education.

Candidates must have a J.D. from an accredited college or university and a distinguished record appropriate for appointment as a tenured law professor. The successful candidate will be an accomplished and recognized leader in the legal profession who can build upon the Law School’s strengths and engage faculty, staff, students, and alumni in developing and implementing a vision for the future of the School of Law. He or she will have a demonstrated commitment to legal education and the legal profession; possess strong interpersonal skills; and maintain the highest standards of personal integrity. The candidate should be prepared to lead an institution that places emphasis on intellectual rigor, practical skills, professional relationships, and ethics and professionalism, and will be qualified to lead the faculty in fulfilling its commitment to teaching, research, and service. The candidate should have a record of achievement in administrative leadership, strategic planning, budgeting and resource allocation, and possess the ability to be successful in alumni outreach and fundraising. Because Mercer University and the Law School seek to foster a diverse faculty, staff, and student body, the successful candidate will demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Interested candidates should complete an online application at www.mercerjobs.com and attach a letter of interest and a current CV. All correspondence and inquiries should be emailed to the Dean Search Committee c/o Karen A. Batts, Office of the Dean of the School of Law, at batts_ka@law.mercer.edu. Review of applications will begin on November 4, 2016. All correspondence will be held in strict confidence.

Wendy Scott Stepping Down As Dean Of Mississippi College Of Law

Dean Wendy Scott has announced that she will step down as Dean of the Mississippi College of Law, effective December 1.  She has served in the position since August of 2014.  An Interim Dean is expected to be named shortly.

Orthography Matters

Illinois Senator Mark Kirk has apologized to Tammy Duckworth, his challenger in the November election, for the following exchange in their recent debate, as reported by CNN and other outlets.  I have bolded the sentence with an orthographic error:

Duckworth:

My family has served this nation in uniform going back to the Revolution. I am a daughter of the American Revolution. I've bled for this nation. But I still want to be there in the Senate when the drums of war sound because I want to be there to say, 'This is what it costs. This is what you're asking us to do. And if that's the case, I'll go.

Kirk:

I forgot your parents came all the way from Thailand to serve George Washington.

As Kirk should have known, Duckworth's mother is Thai and her father is an American-born Marine veteran, whose family does indeed go back to the Revolution.

My point here, however, is a capitalization error that is found in virtually all of the press reports.  Duckworth did not call herself a generic lower-case "daughter," but rather a member of the upper-case "Daughters of the American Revolution."  In fact, a DAR chapter has actually erected a statue of Duckworth in Mt. Vernon, Illinois, next to a statue of Molly Pitcher, who was among the first women to take up arms during the Revolution.

Duckworth's membership in the DAR is significant because the organization was once rigidly segregated.  In 1939, the DAR refused to allow the African American opera singer Marion Anderson sing before an integrated audience in Constitution Hall.  Instead, Eleanor Roosevelt arranged for Anderson to give a concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Thus, Duckworth was pointing out something very important and positive about the contemporary United States, which has been missed in the media reports.  Of course, Kirk's insulting response was more newsworthy, but it is still worth noting that the DAR has come a long way.

NOTE: This post has been slightly edited by bolding the relevant passage in Duckworth's debate quote.

Is Bryan Garner Always Right on Usage?

Bryan Garner's "Usage Tip of the Day" is always welcome when it arrives in my inbox.  His discussion of language, etymology, and popular usage is invariably interesting and informative.  I seldom find any reason to disagree with Garner (although I once sent him a note about the proper use of "bended" in soccer writing), but his most recent email raises a question.  The entry is for "censorship," and here is what Garner says about it:

censorship (= the practice or institution of suppressing the expression of ideas thought to be uncongenial to those in power) is a word whose mention in American English immediately brings up the First Amendment. It is one of those politically charged vogue words that people use irresponsibly. It shouldn’t mean simply the denial of governmental largesse; that is, an artist who is denied federal subsidies is not the object of censorship. The word should refer to active suppression, not merely lack of support.

Is it really "irresponsible" to use "censorship" to describe something other than suppression by the government?  In an age where both the arts and science depend heavily on government grants, can it not be said that withholding support is the equivalent of censorship, at least in circumstances where there appears to be a political motive?  After all, what other word could be used to describe the phenomenon.

It seems to me that there are also other quite responsible uses of the term, including "self-censorship" in the face of threats of violence or ostracism.  Or perhaps an equivalent of censorship by private universities that refuse to provide meeting space for unpopular speakers (which can affect both the right and the left).

I tend to be conservative in my own usage, and my inclination is almost always to follow Garner's advice, but in this case I think he has carried prescriptiveness much too far.

Thomas Jefferson Law Seeks New Dean And President

This just in:

THOMAS JEFFERSON SCHOOL OF LAW invites applications and nominations for the position of President and Dean of the Law School. The next President and Dean must possess integrity as well as high academic and personal standards, be energetic and persistent in the pursuit of excellence, and be enthusiastic about the Law School’s values and mission. The successful candidate will bring passion, insight, and expertise to advancing the Law School’s educational and scholarly missions and to managing and further developing a dynamic and maturing institution of higher education.

Thomas Jefferson School of Law is an independent, fully ABA-approved, AALS member law school located in the heart of San Diego, California. The Law School enrolls more than 500 diverse and engaged law students from across the nation and throughout the world in its J.D., LL.M, J.S.M., and J.S.D. programs. It offers full-time, part-time, day, evening, and online programs, as well as a joint J.D.-M.B.A. program in collaboration with San Diego State University. The dynamic, diverse, and highly productive faculty is characterized by its deep commitment to teaching and scholarship. Since the spring of 2011, the Law School has occupied a new, technologically advanced, eight-story, 177,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility in the East Village area of downtown San Diego.

The Blacklist in the Coal Mine

The BDS movement's advocacy of an academic boycott of Israel is contrary to scholarly values and the free exchange of information, but that cannot possibly justify anti-BDS tactics that are themselves contrary to principles of academic freedom.  Regrettably, an organization called Canary Mission has crossed that threshold by advocating a blacklist of pro-BDS faculty and students.  Most intolerable is their suggestion that future employers should take note of students' anti-Israel activism, thus reviving a tactic from the McCarthy era.

Academic freedom means academic freedom for everyone, both pro- and anti-Israel, and whether they support or oppose BDS.

For this reason, the Alliance for Academic Freedom has published the following statement in opposition to the Canary Mission blacklist.  It originally appeared in Tablet, and you can read the entire statement below.

[Note: The authors of the statement constitute the executive committee of the Alliance for Academic Freedom (AAF), a group of faculty members who are opposed to academic boycotts and who believe that empathy for the suffering and aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians, and respect for their national narratives, are essential if there is to be a peaceful solution to the conflict. I am a member of AAF, but I am not on the executive committee.]

THE BLACKLIST IN THE COAL MINE

By David Greenberg, Rebecca Lesses, Jeffry V. Mallow, Deborah Dash Moore, Sharon Ann Musher, Cary Nelson, Kenneth S. Stern, and Irene Tucker

 October 26, 2016 • 2:42 PM 

In the spring of 2015 an anonymous group of people established a website announcing the formation of an organization they called Canary Mission. They began posting photos of college student activists working on behalf of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, along with brief accounts of their activities. They described the website as a database “created to document the people and groups that are promoting hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on college campuses in North America.” A smaller number of pro-BDS faculty were also documented on the site. From about 50 dossiers in the spring, the site grew to 150 by fall 2015. Canary Mission also began tweeting notices about BDS advocacy and organizing, along with tweets about the people the site was highlighting. As of mid-October 2016, there are 63 faculty members and 602 “individuals,” mostly students, identified on the site.

The purpose behind the large student database, it is clear, is not merely documentation. The introductory video on the Canary Mission website concludes with a call to action based on the organization’s mission. It fills the screen in capital letters: ensure that today’s radicals are not tomorrow’s employees. The video details a series of claims and warnings:

The canary in the coal mine has long been a metaphor for the persecution of a minority that subsequently spreads to the general populace. Today college campuses are filled with anti-Semitic and anti-American radicals waving Palestinian flags and placards and screaming “Apartheid” and “Murderer.” A few years later these individuals are applying for jobs within your company. There’s no record of their membership of [sic] radical organizations. No one remembers their yelling profanities on campus or attending Jew-hating conferences and anti-American rallies. All evidence has been eradicated, and soon they will be part of your team. We are Canary Mission, an organization dedicated to documenting these acts of hate, exposing them, and holding these individuals accountable.

After a collage of campus demonstrations, including one of an anti-war rally, it continues: “Join us to combat this wave of hatred, protect freedom, and make campus life safe for everyone. It is your duty to ensure that today’s radicals are not tomorrow’s employees.”

As part of its fear-mongering agenda, the video tracks slowly across a Holocaust photograph. Whether this allusion is more absurd or despicable may depend on your perspective. But one thing is clear: few will recognize the uncompromisingly alarmist portrait Canary Mission paints of the American campus itself. The McCarthyite tenor of Canary Mission’s claims is enhanced by its crude equation of anti-American and pro-Palestinian sentiment, a link that certainly can exist on campus but is hardly universal.

Some supporters of Israel will be tempted to sympathize with the impulses behind Canary Mission, since anti-Semitic actions or outbursts at colleges and universities have at times been linked to anti-Israel organizing. Are some departments offering demonstrably anti-Israel courses that cross the line into anti-Semitism? Yes. Does the BDS movement assault academic freedom by disrupting lectures by Israeli speakers and blacklisting Israeli academics? Yes. Have BDS protesters sometimes taken over public spaces on American campuses or so dominated campus programming and debate that pro-Israeli students are left feeling marginalized or unwelcome? Yes.

In the current campus environment, there is, appropriately, empathy and solicitude for black, Latino/a, or Muslim students who are targeted by hostile groups or suffer from significant bias in their institutions. But pro-Israel Jewish students are typically extended far less empathy and concern, even though they, too, have grounds for unease in the face of a highly organized, often-virulent political movement that often denigrates their religion, their ethnicity, or their attachment to a nation that is intimately linked to Jewish identity.

Yet while the impact of the BDS movement is real, perspective is still needed. We cannot endorse Canary Mission’s hyperbolic claim that a “wave of hatred” is sweeping over our campuses. Few Jewish students are in peril from the rise of campus anti-Israel activity. Nor, despite Canary Mission’s Holocaust analogy, does the campus climate herald the spread of anti-Semitic persecution “to the general populace.” The alarmist rhetoric seems designed to justify the extremist tactics the website employs.

Those tactics must be condemned. Above all, the project of holding students permanently accountable for their campus politics and the campaign to undermine their employment opportunities takes Canary Mission’s McCarthyism from metaphor to reality. Unlike the faculty members profiled, many of whom already have national recognition for their books and essays supporting BDS or fundamentally denying Israel’s right to exist, most student activists have merely local reputations—if they have anything like a reputation at all. Many are new to political issues, and some will change their minds about things several times even before they graduate. Many adults look back on their student views with bemusement or regret. The moral urgency we felt decades earlier may not survive unchanged. Immortalizing ephemeral student opinion carries a high risk of misrepresentation. Indeed, Canary Mission produces scant evidence for the student attitudes it purports to identify. Canary Mission wants both to give BDS student activists national name recognition and to tether them to the positions they take as youth.

Lists alone, it should be clear, are not in themselves blacklists. The BDS  movement itself generates lists of its self-identified supporters in the form of signed public petitions or faculty-endorsed boycott or divestment resolutions in professional associations. Reprinting those lists exercises a First Amendment right. Canary Mission, however, is not simply creating lists. It urges action to punish the students it targets, including the call to private organizations to shun them when hiring. But private organizations with a political mission are better off interviewing and inquiring to make sure they are making appropriate hires, rather than relying on Canary Mission’s dubious lists. They don’t need and should not turn to any blacklist to help them screen applicants. Canary Mission’s efforts enhance the potential for the unethical political screening of job applicants.

Canary Mission’s blacklisting of students based on their political activities is a direct threat to free expression and academic freedom on campus and deserves to be condemned. At the same time, it should not be forgotten that the effort to boycott Israeli academics and/or academic institutions also constitutes a blacklisting project. For nearly fifteen years we have seen that purported boycotts of Israeli universities inevitably generate sanctions against individual students and faculty. Such discrimination against individuals based on religion and nationality violates not only academic freedom but, more profoundly, fundamental democratic and humane principles. We therefore invite those who condemn the academic boycott of Israelis and their universities to join the Alliance for Academic Freedom in condemning Canary Mission’s efforts, and we likewise ask those others who condemn Canary Mission to raise their voices against the blacklisting of Israeli academics and their universities. Though both blacklisting campaigns grow out of the debates over the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, they employ different strategies and embody different political aims. Yet each undermines academic freedom and does harm to members of the academy. We think both are fundamentally misguided.

 

Reading the Great Constitutional Dream Book: Winston Salem State

I want to step back into the faculty lounge to say that I am particularly excited to be giving the J. Alston Atkins lecture at Winston-Salem State University next Tuesday at 3:30.  I'll be speaking about "Reading the Great Constitutional Dream Book: African American Intellectuals and the Road to Brown."  This is a project I've been working on, on and off, for many years -- and one that I'm hoping to bring to a conclusion sooner rather than later.

A lot of this will focus on the ideas of equality and its growing significance  in the wake of World War I.  And I will probably wrap some of the NAACP's anti-lynching brief (for which Karl Llewellyn wrote the foreword) into this.  I will certainly talk about the Jess Hollins case, in honor of  "anon," who pushed me to explore that case much more than I had before.  Atkins (who had been a lawyer in Muskogee, Oklahoma before moving to Houston, Texas) was excited by Charles Hamilton Houston's role in the Hollins case.

If you have occasion to be around Winston-Salem next Tuesday, I hope you'll join us!

One other observation -- yet another of the unexpected outdoing itself in its power to surprise -- is that J. Alston Adkins was an editor of the Yale Law Journal when it published Allen Johnson's critique of the abolitionist attack on the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.  How I wish I could hear what he thought of it -- I'm guessing not much.  But then again I'd much rather he what he thought of DuBois and also his career as an editor of the Texas Freeman.

Hiring Announcement: Dayton

From an email message which I received earlier today:

The University of Dayton School of Law invites applications for two Assistant Professors of Academic Success.  Applicants must have a J.D. from an ABA-accredited law school and excellent written communication skills.  They must also have passed a bar exam and been admitted to practice law in a U.S. state.   Preferred qualifications include: an outstanding academic record; successful and recent experience in legal education or law teaching, particularly in designing and teaching academic success courses; experience providing effective academic advising and professional development counseling for students; and, recent successful experience developing and administering structured intervention and counseling programs for at-risk students. The full announcement, including all the preferred qualifications, can be found here: https://jobs.udayton.edu/.

The University of Dayton, founded in 1850 by the Society of Mary, is a top ten Catholic research university.  The University seeks outstanding, diverse faculty and staff who value its mission and share its commitment to academic excellence in teaching, research and artistic creativity, the development of the whole person, and leadership and service in the local and global community.  To attain its Catholic and Marianist mission, the University is committed to the principles of diversity, inclusion and affirmative action and to equal opportunity policies and practices.  As an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer, we will not discriminate against minorities, females, protected veterans, individuals with disabilities, or on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Applications will be reviewed beginning August 15, and continue until the position is filled. Applications must be submitted through the University of Dayton electronic employment site:   http://jobs.udayton.edu/postings/21430 . Inquiries may be directed to Professor Susan Wawrose, Chair of the Hiring Committee, at wawrose@udayton.edu.​

Hiring Announcement: Concordia Associate Dean

From colleagues at Concordia:

Background: Concordia University School of Law, located in Boise, Idaho, invites applications for the Associate Dean of Academics position.  Applicants should have a proven track record of outstanding law school teaching and scholarly publication such that the applicant is qualified for appointment at the rank of full professor with tenure.  It is also preferred that the candidate have five or more years of experience in the legal academy, with previous tenure ranking.  As a Lutheran institution of higher education, we seek candidates who will support our mission and promote Lutheran values.
 
Special Instructions to Applicants: Questions about the position can be directed to the Chair of the Appointments Committee at vhaneman@cu-portland.edu.  Applicants should submit a current Curriculum Vitae, a statement of faith, and a letter of interest to https://cu-portland.csod.com/ats/careersite/JobDetails.aspx?id=126.  Please also provide the names and email addresses of three individuals prepared to speak to your professional qualifications for this position. Please note: these references will not be contacted immediately, but may be contacted at an appropriate later point in the review process.  Review of applications will begin immediately and continued until the position is filled. Concordia University reserves the right to give preference in employment based upon religion in order to further the Lutheran objectives of the University and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

Washington and Lee University Hiring Announcement

The Washington and Lee University School of Law seeks to hire a faculty member with research and teaching interests in the fields of corporate law, securities regulation, and regulation of financial industries.  Our school has a long history of distinction in these areas, and we are excited to advance our trajectory with this new hire.  In addition to this subject area focus, we look for an individual who will embrace and meaningfully contribute to our close-knit, collegial, and intellectually vibrant community. 

We warmly invite applications for a tenure-track or tenured position beginning July 1, 2017, and we are particularly focused on lateral candidates.  In all cases, candidates for the position must clearly demonstrate a record of excellence in teaching and scholarship.  Appointment rank would be commensurate with the candidate’s qualifications and experience.

Washington and Lee University School of Law is an Equal Opportunity employer that adheres to a robust nondiscrimination policy.  Our school has a firm commitment to enhancing the diversity of our faculty and, in that regard, we welcome candidates who are members of communities traditionally under-represented in the legal profession and academia.

Kindly direct applications and questions to the Chair of the Faculty Appointments Committee. Applicants should submit (by e-mail) a current cv, a statement of teaching interests / experience, a research agenda, and a letter of interest by email to:

Mark Drumbl, Chair, Faculty Appointments Committee

Washington and Lee University, School of Law

Lewis Hall

Lexington VA 24450 USA

drumblm@wlu.edu

All inquiries will be treated with the strictest confidence and discretion.  Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.

Recruitment Announcement: The Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity

The University of North Carolina School of Law strongly encourages individuals interested in becoming law professors to apply for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity. This is a university-wide program aimed at helping scholars from underrepresented groups prepare for and secure tenure-track appointments. The University places postdoctoral fellows across departments at UNC-Chapel Hill. The School of Law seeks to participate in this program by hosting and mentoring a postdoctoral fellow who is interested in becoming a tenure-track law professor.

Interested applicants must have completed their JD and/or PhD degree no later than July 1, 2017 and no earlier than July 1, 2012. Fellows will be appointed for a period of two years, and they are expected to be in residence for both years. A fellow placed at the School of Law would be engaged full-time in research and would teach one course per year. The course to be taught would be determined based on the fellow’s interests as well as the needs of the school. The School of Law would provide mentorship to prepare the fellow for the tenure-track job market. The fellow would fully participate in faculty scholarship workshops and all other aspects of the school’s intellectual life. During the second year of the program, the fellow would be expected to apply for tenure-track positions through the Association of American Law Schools’ annual faculty recruitment process. Depending on the hiring needs of the law school, the fellow might also be considered as a possible tenure-track candidate at the UNC School of Law.

The stipend for fellows is $47,476 per calendar year. Additional funds are available for research expenses, including travel. Candidates must submit their application to the University’s Office of Postdoctoral Affairs via the website provided below. The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs will ask the School of Law to review materials submitted by applicants who express interest in spending their fellowship at the School of Law. Based on the submitted materials and interviews with candidates, the School of Law will nominate a candidate for further review. (The School of Law may also decline to nominate someone if no suitable applicant is identified). A selection committee, consisting of staff and faculty from different UNC-Chapel Hill units, will then review all materials associated with department nominations and make fellowship offers.

The primary criterion for selection is evidence of scholarship potentially competitive for tenure-track appointments at the University of North Carolina and other research universities. Preference will be given to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. The University strongly encourages applications from African American, Native American and Hispanic/Latinx American scholars. 

Interested applicants should apply online at https://apps.research.unc.edu/postdoc_fd/.

Directions for the electronic submission are provided at the application site.  For additional information, please visit the program website at http://research.unc.edu/carolina-postdocs/index.htm. Questions may be directed to Program Coordinator Jennifer Pruitt in the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at jennifer_pruitt@unc.edu. Questions about the School of Law may be directed to Holning Lau, Associate Dean for Faculty Development, at hslau@email.unc.edu.

The application deadline is 5:00PM EST Tuesday, November 15, 2016, including three letters of recommendations due by November 15, 2016.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, race, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or status as a protected veteran.

Vetting Refugees

Excellent article by Lev Golinkin about what it means to be a refugee.

 

Hiring Announcement: Concordia Director of Academic Success

From colleagues at Concordia:

Background: Concordia University School of Law, located in Boise, Idaho, invites applications for a Director of Academic Success and law professor position beginning in the 2017-18 academic year.  This is a full-time faculty position that may lead to long-term successive contracts.  Our goal is to recruit a dynamic, bright, and highly motivated individual who is interested in making significant contributions to our law school and its students.  Experience in academic support and bar exam support is preferred, and teaching experience is desirable.  As a Lutheran institution of higher education, we seek candidates who will support our mission and promote Lutheran values.
 
Special Instructions to Applicants: Questions about the position can be directed to the Chair of the Committee.  Applicants should submit a current Curriculum Vitae, a statement of faith, and a letter of interest to https://cu-portland.csod.com/ats/careersite/JobDetails.aspx?id=118.  Please also provide the names and email addresses of three individuals prepared to speak to your professional qualifications for this position. Please note: these references will not be contacted immediately, but may be contacted at an appropriate later point in the review process. Additional materials related to teaching excellence and samples of scholarly publications may be emailed to the Victoria Haneman, Chair of the Committee, at vhaneman@cu-portland.edu.  Review of applications will begin immediately and continued until the position is filled. Concordia University reserves the right to give preference in employment based upon religion in order to further the Lutheran objectives of the University and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

Reflections on the Chicago Cubs in the World Series -- UPDATED

Chicago neighborhoods are roughly divided into six sides, ranging from Southeast to Northwest, but there are only two baseball teams:  The North Side Cubs and the South Side White Sox, with fan loyalties more or less divided geographically.  This presented some complications during my early childhood, as we lived on the West Side, across the street from Douglas Park.  At around age four, I asked my mother which team we cheered for.  Because we lived south of Madison Street (the dividing line), she told me to cheer for the White Sox, and I have been a Sox fan ever since. 

As I grew older, I realized that White Sox fandom appealed to my contrarianism.  I have always preferred to reject conformity, and to make the unpopular choice.  So even though the Cubs were by far the more popular team, I saw the White Sox as a reflection of independence, or perhaps eccentricity, even during my formative years.  Cheering for the White Sox rather than the Cubs was a lot like voting Stevenson against Eisenhower – it was a rejection of the fashionable choice in favor of individualism.

In my eyes, at least, there was also a liberal class consciousness to it.  The Cubs played on the affluent North Side, while the Sox were on the more proletarian South Side.  The Cubs were owned first by the corporate Wrigley family, then by the actual Tribune Corporation, and now by the mostly right-wing Ricketts family.  The White Sox, beginning in 1959, were owned by the maverick and racial progressive Bill Veeck (they are now owned by the self-made Jerry Reinsdorf, who is a Northwestern Law School alumnus).

Now, you may be asking why I did not cheer for both teams.  If so, you obviously are not from Chicago.  You simply did not cheer for both teams – and if you did, well, you just were not a true fan.  And in the way of all rivalries, it was not enough to root for your own team; you also had to root against the other one.  You could, of course, have a second favorite team, which led many people to say, “My favorite team is the White Sox, and my second favorite is whoever is playing the Cubs.”  My actual second favorite team was the Pirates – my father having grown up in Pittsburgh – which turned out to serve the same purpose.

Exclusive fandom was not unique to White Sox fans.  One of my friends, an ardent Cubs fan who grew up on the North Side, still tells the story of figuring out four best words in the English language.

At first, he says, they were “Pitchers and catchers report,” which signaled the beginning of spring training each year.

Later, he decided that his four favorite words were “Cubs win, Cubs win,” but that did not quite get it right.

Finally, he realized that he was made happiest by “Cubs win, Sox lose,” and I had to admit that he had a point.

For most of my life, the two teams had more in common than their fans cared to admit. They were both long-time losers.  The White Sox had not won the World Series since 1917, and the Cubs had not won since 1908.  The White Sox had thrown the World Series in 1919, achieving infamy, while the Cubs had choked badly in 1969, achieving fame for a near-historic collapse.  Even so, Chicago was a Cubs’ town.  They have almost always outdrawn the White Sox attendance-wise, and their affiliation with the Tribune and WGN provided them with a national following as well.  When I went to law school at the University of California, my classmates, who were from all over the country, were astonished to learn that I didn’t cheer for the Cubs.  White Sox fandom was treated like a curiosity – and this was in an era when Maoists were more common in Berkeley than Republicans.

But that is what it was like growing up in Chicago in the 1950s and beyond.  You cheered for one team and against the other.  President Obama has acquired the same attitude, evidently by marriage.  Bill Murray recently showed up at a White House press briefing in full Cubs regalia.  Asked for his reaction, the president replied, “He was wearing a Cubs jacket – which for a White Sox fan is a little troubling.” Well, he is the president of all the people, so you can see why he had to be circumspect.

Of course, childhood tribalism is hard to maintain over the passing of years.  By the time I reached middle age, my disdain for the Cubs had ripened into an attitude of mature indifference.  I still cheered for the White Sox, of course, especially when they won the World Series in 2005.  But as for the Cubs, well, I simply didn’t care.  “I wouldn’t walk across the street to see them in the World Series, “I quipped, quite confident that I would never be put to the test. 

But now the Cubs are actually in the World Series, and I have to admit that I am cheering for them.  Years ago, I might have looked forward to seeing the familiar crestfallen look on the face of Cubs fans, once again resigned to failure, but now I am hoping for a victory celebration on the North Side.

Why cheer for the Cubs after all these years?

Because it will be one of the greatest stories in the history of sports.  Not only will a World Series victory end a 108 year old drought, but it will be the second time Theo Epstein has put together a team capable of breaking a so-called curse, having done it with the Red Sox in 2004.  First the “Curse of the Bambino,” and now the “Billy Goat Curse.”  No one ever again is likely to overcome nearly 200 years of combined futility.  Who wouldn’t want to see that happen?

In the end, my writerly instincts have eclipsed the prospect of schadenfreude. 

So yes, I will say it: “Go Cubs, Go.”

UPDATE: Here is what Hillary Clinton had to say about it, in a 2003 interview:

In our neighborhood, it was nearly sacrilegious to cheer for the rival White Sox of the American League, so I adopted the Yankees as my AL team.

She grew up in north suburban Park Ridge.

Phil Chess (1921-2016)

Phil Chess, of Chicago's legendary Chess Records, died earlier this week at the age of 95.  His New York Times obituary is here.

Phil and his brother Leonard recorded blues artists such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and Buddy Guy.  They also introduced Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, at the very beginning of Rock n' Roll.  Their jazz artists included Etta James.  The Rolling Stones took their name from a Chess recording by Muddy Waters, and they later recorded  an instrumental track at the Chess Studio, naming it after the location, which was 2120 South Michigan Avenue.

Here is Muddy Waters's Got My Mojo Workin'

 

 

Here is Howlin' Wolf's Smokestack Lightening

 

 

Using Cognitive Psychology to Improve Student Performance, Part Four: Cognitive Schema Theory.

I’d like to discuss one last concept that students can leverage to understand law more effectively. This concept is cognitive schema theory (CST). Like the other topics I’ve discussed in this series, CST is widely accepted in educational psychology.

Like self-regulated learning, CST is a subset of constructivism. Constructivism holds that real learning happens when students make a concept their own by actively discovering knowledge using their own reasoning processes. It embodies the old maxim that instructors should be the “guide on the side” instead of the “sage on the stage.” The problem, as I’ve noted before, is the misguided impression that instructors are indeed there to be the sage on the stage and that the sage is obliged to make doctrine and schema effortlessly obvious.

So, what is CST, and how can it help?