The Faculty Lounge

Bass Lines [UPDATED] [UPDATED]

Here are some songs with iconic bass lines (played on either bass or guitar bass strings). You can tell they are iconic because even cover versions, which artists often attempt to make distinctive, still rely on the same lines. [Don't miss the update on great session bassists at the bottom of this post.)

Socio-Legal Approaches to Property CRN Call for Papers

For the sixth year, the Socio-Legal Approaches to Property CRN will be hosting a series of panels at the Annual Law and Society Association Meeting. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic this year’s conference will be hybrid. Therefore please indicate if you are planning on attending in person or wish to attend virtually. For more information on the LSA format please visit: https://www.lawandsociety.org/faqs-lisbon-2022/

Panels to be held at the Law and Society Global Meeting

Lisbon, Portugal from July 13-16 2022

Abstract Deadline to SLAP – November 1^st, 2021

Submissions

We invite original, unpublished submissions from scholars at any stage of their careers. We are interested in empirically-based papers examining any issues related to the treatment of land and other tangible things as property. Topics may include but are not limited to: land tenure; indigenous forms of property; collectives and property pluralism; land use; symbols of property; resource extraction; civil forfeiture, inheritance; embodied property; redistribution of property; social movements; and resistance to property. We will consider all empirically-grounded papers that focus on tangible property, anywhere in the world. All kinds of empirical methods are welcome.

If you have a book you would like discussed in a panel session, then please get in touch as we have hosted several “authors meet readers” session.

To submit your paper for consideration please email John Felipe Acevedo, jacevedo@law.ua.edu the following information:

• A 100-250 word abstract describing the topic, methodology, and findings (or expected findings) of your paper.
• The paper title.
• Your contact information including affiliation, discipline(s), and email
• If you have already submitted your paper to LSA please provide your submission number.

Panel on Structural Racialization of Property

In addition, to the general call Jamila Jefferson-Jones and Taja-Nia Henderson are seeking papers as part of a panel on structural protections of property (racialized as white) are detrimental to the flourishing of persons of color and their actual lives. If you have a project that you believes fits this panel please submit it to Jamila Jefferson-Jones (jeffersonjones@wayne.edu) and Taja-Nia Henderson (tajhenderson@gmail.com) by the above deadline.

Questions

Contact John Felipe Acevedo jacevedo@law.ua.edu.

Thompson v. Clark & the "indications of innocence" standard under Section 1983

I wanted to share this excellent op ed piece by BU Professor Jasmine Gonzales Rose about the unfair "indications of innocence" standard used by some Circuits in Sec. 1983 actions and the pending Supreme Court case, Thompson v. Clark, which could change it. https://lnkd.in/dCRg9S-D #policeaccountability #criminaljusticereform #section1983

Patricia Bennett Stepping Down as Dean of Mississippi College Law

Dean Patricia Bennett, who has served as the dean of Mississippi College School of Law since 2016, will step down on June 30, 2022. Dean Bennett served as President of the Mississippi Bar in 2018 while the full time dean at MC Law. The school will begin a national dean search.

Trevor Morrison Stepping Down as Dean of NYU Law

Trevor Morrison, who has served as dean of NYU Law since 2013, will step down at the end of the 2021-2022 academic year.  Details regarding the dean search will be forthcoming from the University. 

Chapman University Names Matt Parlow Named Executive VP & Advancement Chief

Chapman Law Dean Matt Parlow has been named Chapman University's new Executive Vice President and Chief Advancement Officer.  He has served as dean of the law school since 2016.  Parlow takes over December 1.  An interim dean will be named shortly. 

Seattle Law Seeks Dean

Seattle Law is seeking a new dean.  A full position specification gives all the details.  

 

Should Academic Departments Take Official Positions on Controversial Political Issues? (Part Two)

Yesterday's guest post by Cary Nelson, emeritus professor at the University of Illinois and former president of the AAUP, included a group letter (written by Prof. Richard Ross) to the UIUC chancellor and provost, setting out the reasons that academic departments should not take formal positions on controversial political issues, such as the Israel/Palestine conflict. As Professors Ross, Nelson and colleagues put it, "The distinction between individual and departmental speech is critical."

Prof. Nelson reports, "A month later we received a response from the Chancellor’s office, one I and others regard as immensely troubling," including this passage:

[I]nstructing departments not to advocate on political issues unrelated to their academic or research missions could chill the campus conversation and cause some of your own colleagues to challenge such instruction as an unacceptable intrusion on shared governance.

In other words, as I understand it, the chancellor and provost are wary of taking steps to avoid intimidating students and faculty, because that would chill the expression of the intimidators.

The UIUC administration's full response is after the jump.

Should Academic Departments Take Official Positions on Controversial Political Issues? [Part One] [UPDATED]

It ought to be well-recognized that individual faculty members must be free to state controversial political views, and the same is true for groups or organizations of academics (so long as the statements do not imply “unfitness” to teach in the relevant discipline). But what about political declarations by entire academic departments? As I have explained, an avowed participant in anti-Israel academic boycotts should not be able to serve as a dean, because such a boycott itself can violate the academic freedom of other faculty and students. Does the same hold true when a department states an official position on a controversial political issue, such as the Israel/Palestine conflict?

This guest post by Cary Nelson, emeritus professor at the University of Illinois and former president of the AAUP, sets out the reasons why academic departments should not take official political positions, as he and over forty colleagues explained in a letter to the chancellor and provost of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The letter itself was written by Professor Richard Ross of the UIUC law school.

Prof. Nelson is working on a detailed account to rebut the "fiction of departmental academic freedom" and to draft a model university policy. Here is the gist of the group letter to the UIUC administration:

The distinction between individual and departmental speech is critical. 

First, an academic unit that engages in political advocacy chills robust debate and potentially intimidates scholars who think differently.  Can a student expect open inquiry in an environment of mutual respect if his or her department publicly commits to one side in the complicated Israeli-Palestinian dispute?  Can a department that calls for the boycott and sanction of Israel (in violation of University policy) study Israeli perspectives as well as Palestinian ones?  If a unit denounces Israel in inflammatory prose and promises “solidarity with Palestine,” only a brave untenured faculty member would dare voice a contrary position.  Graduate students whose careers can be hurt by the withdrawal of mentorship, adjunct faculty on one-year contracts, undergraduates concerned about grades and recommendations, and academic professionals with the minimal protections of “at will” employees would need to summon even greater bravery to dissent. 

The entire letter is after the jump. Tomorrow, I will post the UIUC administration’s rather troubling reply.

[Note: this post has been updated by adding Prof. Richard Ross as the drafter of the letter to the administration.]

Rennard Strickland (1940-2021)

Rennard Strickland "a legal historian of Osage and Cherokee heritage, died January 5, 2021, in Norman at the age of 80, where he was the Senior Scholar in Residence at the University of Oklahoma Law Center. Strickland, a native of Muskogee, was considered a pioneer in introducing Indian Law into the University's legal curriculum.  ... Strickland spent much of his career in Legal Education as a Dean of various law schools, served as the Dean at four law schools including the University of Tulsa, Southern Illinois University, Oklahoma City University, and the University of Oregon. He was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School in 1980, at Florida University Law School in 1983, and at Syracuse University Law School in 2001."

Norman Transcript January 2021.

Size Doesn't Matter [UPDATED with Little Steven]

Big Joe Turner

Little Richard

Maine Law Seeks Visiting Professor of Legal Writing

Visiting Professor of Legal Writing / Visiting Assistant Professor

The University of Maine School of Law, in the coastal city of Portland, Maine, invites applications for one full-time Visiting Professor of Legal Writing to teach one section of first-year students in the Legal Research, Analysis, and Communication I (fall) and II (spring) courses.  This position is for a two-year term, starting in the 2022-2023 academic year. Successful candidates will be eligible to apply for a full-time, long-term position starting in the 2024-2025 academic year.  Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. Members of minority groups, women, and others whose background would contribute to the diversity of the law school are encouraged to apply. Applications must be submitted to the University of Maine System HireTouch portal at:  https://maine.hiretouch.com/job-details?jobID=72032&job=visiting-professor-of-legal-writing-visiting-assistant-professor&collection=true.  You may email any questions to mainelawsearch@maine.edu.

Tenure-Track Position at the University of Miami Herbert Business School Business Law Department

The University of Miami is accepting applications for a tenure-track faculty position within the Business Law Department at the Patti and Allan Herbert School of Business (MHBS) commencing August 15, 2022.

MHBS’s Business Law Department seeks applicants with experience and accomplishment in law scholarship, specifically in areas related to technology, data science, corporate governance, or sustainability.  The position is open to those candidates with a law degree who have a strong research stream, or a well-developed relevant research agenda. A record of outstanding teaching or clear potential therefor is required. 

The successful candidate will join a thriving Business Law department of 19 full-time regular faculty and instructors with varied scholarly interests, who teach a wide range of bachelors, masters, and executive level courses. 

The University of Miami is a Carnegie comprehensive degree-granting research university with approximately 17,800 students and 16,400 faculty and staff.  MHBS has approximately 4,000 total graduate and undergraduate students and is located on the University’s main campus in suburban Coral Gables, Florida.

Salary, benefits, and research support are competitive. Interested candidates should submit a letter of interest describing relevant qualifications and experience, detailed CV, as well as contact information for at least three academic and/or professional references who may be contacted.

Completed applications and any questions should be addressed to Professor Patricia Sanchez Abril, Chair, Business Law Department, Miami Herbert Business School, via email to BSLrecruiting@mbs.miami.edu. Deadline is December 1, 2021. 

University of Miami is an equal employment and affirmative action employer and a provider of ADA services.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ethnicity, color, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or identity, national origin, disability status, or protected veteran status.

Taking Long Covid Seriously

I have an essay today on Social Science Space:

On Taking Long COVID Seriously

Published on 10/07/2021 By Steven Lubet

There was a time when doctors and patients inhabited a nearly “silent world,” as famously described by physician-educator Jay Katz in his 1984 book of the same name. In those days, communication ran in only one direction and trust was expected only in the other. Doctors explained things and patients listened quietly, to be followed by grateful compliance. Fortunately, medical schools have emphasized mutual communication and things have gotten much better. Doctors and patients now work together, forming a relationship in which the patient’s input is sought and experiences valued. But not always. Physicians’ receptivity turns out to have its limits, perhaps never more so than when patients organize around a demand for greater recognition.

Consider, for example, a recent New Yorker article by Dr. Dhruv Khullar, a faculty member at Weill Cornell Medical College, titled “The Struggle to Define Long COVID.” After allowing briefly that there is “little doubt among researchers that long COVID exists,” Khullar devotes much of the balance of the 6,000-word essay to his own considerable doubts about various patients’ conditions, especially those involved in patient-advocacy groups.

The problem with too many long COVID patients, according to Khullar, is that they do not appreciate medical skepticism. Rather than accept that their symptoms may be “psychologically generated,” as has often been urged by otherwise baffled treating physicians, they insist instead that the “syndrome be seen mainly as a physiological disease.” After all, says Khullar, “mental illness is still illness.” The balky patients are thus “setting rules about what kind of suffering counts.”

Khullar’s view borders perilously on a return to the silent world, in which patients are discouraged from objecting to possible misdiagnoses. The default to a psychological explanation – when all tests are negative – has profound problems of its own. First, it implicitly assumes that every possible physiological condition can already be identified by currently available tests. Moreover, biomedical research can be delayed or inhibited once a novel syndrome is labeled primarily psychogenic. Finally, psychiatry itself has a poor historical record, having too often claimed physical diseases – including multiple sclerosis, asthma, and peptic ulcers – as psychosomatic or conversion disorders.

In any case, Khullar’s skepticism strangely vanishes when it comes to a group of long COVID denying physicians. He uncritically quotes Dr. Jeremy Devine, a young Canadian psychiatrist still in his residency, who implausibly asserts that long COVID – a worldwide phenomenon affecting hundreds of thousands or more – is “largely an invention of vocal patient activist groups.” Many diseases have at first been poorly understood, but it does not follow that they must then be deemed psychogenic.

Houston Law Seeks Tenure-Track Assistant Professor

This just in:

The University of Houston Law Center (UHLC) invites applications to apply for a Presidential Frontier Faculty tenure-track assistant professor position to begin academic year 2022-23. The Presidential Frontier Faculty program is a university-wide integrated interdisciplinary hiring campaign that is overseen by central university leadership, and encompasses hiring a large cohort of convergence research faculty to work on health, energy, sustainability and security. The doctrinal and research focus for this position is law and technology and privacy law, with a focus on cyber security and data protection.

Applicants for the position must hold a J.D. degree (or the equivalent) and should demonstrate the potential for success as scholars, teachers, and future members of the UH and the Law Center’s broader community.

The successful candidate will teach the Law Center’s baseline course in privacy and data protection, and likely other courses related to the discipline. Willingness to teach elsewhere in the Law Center curriculum, including 1L courses or courses covered on the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE), is also a positive factor. The successful candidate will also be affiliated with the Law Center’s top-ten ranked program in intellectual property, the Institute for Intellectual Property & Information Law (IPIL).

Other criteria relevant to this hire include: grant acquisition experience; work on health data and privacy in a legal, technological, or policy capacity; and STEM background(s) in areas related to data, data science, computer science, algorithms, AI, machine learning, automated manufacturing and supply chains, or technology transfer. The position will teach three courses each academic year during the pre-tenure period. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to collaborate with faculty at other UH colleges who specialize in cyber security and data protection issues.

CFP: Bodily Autonomy and the Law

This just in:

The University of Detroit Mercy Law Review is accepting submissions for the annual symposium, Governing Bodies: Bodily Autonomy and the Law, on Friday, March 4, 2022, in Detroit, Michigan.  Possible topics include any involving governments and entities attempting to regulate bodily autonomy, including (but not limited to) slavery, vaccine passports and mandates, abortion laws, assisted suicide, data privacy issues, transgender rights, and many others.   

Submission Procedure 

Proposals should be approximately 250–500 words, double-spaced, and should detail the proposed topic and presentation. Proposals must be submitted no later than 5 PM EST Friday, October 15, 2021, by email to Mackenzie Clark, Symposium Director, at lawreview@udmercy.edu. In your e-mail, please indicate whether your proposal is for a presentation only or if you plan to submit an article based on your presentation for potential publication in the Detroit Mercy Law Review. Also, please include a current CV or resume. 

Decisions will be emailed on or before Monday, November 7, 2021. The final completed manuscripts must be submitted by Friday, March 11, 2022, for editing to commence by the Law Review staff. 

CFP: Trusts & Estates Collaborative Research Network of Law and Society Association

Trusts & Estates Collaborative Research Network

Global Meeting on Law and Society

Lisbon, Portugal (& Virtual), July 13-16, 2022

 

Call for Participation – Deadline for Trusts & Estates CRN Proposals November 10, 2021 11:59 PM ET (USA)

Submission Link: here

The Trusts & Estates Collaborative Research invites proposals for (i) individual papers to be organized into panels; (ii) fully-formed panel proposals; and (iii) proposals for other sessions such as Author Meets Reader, Salon, or Roundtable discussions that explore any aspect of the law, practice or effects of trusts, equity, and estates, broadly defined. We also seek volunteers to serve as Chairs and/or Discussants for paper panels.

The CRN welcomes work that bears in any way on succession (inheritance), equity, or wealth transfers more generally. Subjects of inquiry may involve any aspect of government or social policy with respect to trusts, estates, inheritance, wealth transfer, equity or courts with jurisdiction over these issues.

If you would like to present an individual paper as part of a Trusts and Estates CRN panel, submit an idea for a fully-formed panel, or propose an Author Meets Reader, Salon or Roundtable session, please submit your proposal by November 10, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern (USA) via the LSA submission page here: https://lsa-annualmeeting.secure-platform.com/a/organizations/main/home

When you submit your proposal, please indicate that it is for CRN #56 Trusts and Estates.

If you would like to volunteer as a chair or discussant, please email Bridget Crawford (bcrawford [at] law.pace.edu).

For papers that are not already organized into panels, the CRN will organize submitted papers into panels with cohesive themes.

You are welcome to link your paper in some way to the 2021 conference theme, “Rage, Reckoning, & Remedy,” but there is no requirement to do so.

Please note that LSA rules limit you to one conference participation as a Paper Presenter, Roundtable Participant, Author.  There are no caps on appearances as Chair and/or Discussant on a panel, or an AMR reader.

Please also note that the format for the conference is hybrid, meaning some panels will be entirely online and some panels will be entirely in-person, but no “mixed” hybrid/live panels are permitted. Please indicate with your submission whether you plan to attend the conference in person or virtually only. For more information about this year’s format, please see LSA’s FAQ page here: https://www.lawandsociety.org/faqs-lisbon-2022.

 

Widener University Commonwealth Law School (Harrisburg) Faculty Hiring Announcement

Widener University Commonwealth Law School in Harrisburg Pennsylvania is seeking entry-level and pre-tenure lateral faculty to fill two tenure track positions in the 2022-2023 academic year. Our specific needs are to be determined, so we encourage all interested applicants to apply. Interest areas include, but are not limited to: Civil Procedure, Contracts, Legal Methods, and Academic Support. We are also interested in our upper-level course areas, including, but not limited to, Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Professional Responsibility, and Wills and Trusts. The school may hire faculty in any subject area or category based on a candidate’s overall strength.

WLC is a dynamic community of teachers and scholars. We pride ourselves on our dedication to our students, our engagement with teaching, and our scholarly impact. Many of our scholars are actively engaged in law reform efforts at both the state and federal level.

The law school is committed to fostering an environment in which faculty, staff, and students from a variety of backgrounds, cultures, and personal experiences are welcomed and can thrive. Faculty and staff are active participants in our work to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion. We welcome applications from persons of color, people with disabilities, veterans, women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and other members of historically disadvantaged groups.

We are looking for candidates with strong academic backgrounds, commitment to excellence in teaching, and demonstrated potential to be productive scholars. Candidates must possess at least a JD degree or its equivalent.

Please submit a cover letter, CV, and list of three references to the appointments committee at clsappointments@wumail.onmicrosoft.com. Please contact Professor Jill Family, Appointments Committee Chair, (jefamily@widener.edu) with any questions. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis, and we encourage applications by November 1.

Help for Asylum-Seeking Afghan Women

This is a guest post by my niece, Alyssa Lubet:

In my previous career, I had the privilege of teaching at the Asian University for Women in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Many of our students were from Afghanistan, and had not been allowed to attend school until age 10-11 or even older, when the Taliban were toppled following 9/11. Despite (and perhaps because) of this disadvantage, they were some of the most voracious and dedicated learners, aware of what a privilege it was to have access to education, knowledge, discourse, and debate. After graduating, many of these alumnae moved abroad to continue their education, while many more returned to Afghanistan to work in government positions. All are fluent or near-fluent in English, and nearly all have been outspoken advocates for the rights of women and ethnic/religious minorities in their home country.

As you can imagine, these women are now in an incredibly precarious position. Some have been able to go to the U.S. or other countries as refugees, while others remain in Afghanistan. Former colleagues and alumnae have organized a fundraiser to provide immigration, relocation and basic needs support for the women and their families. Because of security concerns, not a lot of details are publicly available, but I know the organizers and a number of the alumnae, and can personally vouch for their integrity and the validity of this cause. Please consider making a donation if you feel comfortable doing so. (Representatives of the University are also trying to find academic placements for the women who have been evacuated to the U.S. so that they can support themselves long-term here—more details on that to possibly follow.)

Of course, these women and their families represent only a tiny fraction of the large number of Afghan refugees currently in need of support; please consider also contributing to the number of worthy organizations working to help, including the International Rescue Committee and HIAS.

This is Steve again: for those who may have missed it in the text, here is the link for the fundraiser.

LSA Announcment on Now-Defunct USNWR Legal Scholarship Rankings

Readers might be interested in the recent announcement by the Law and Society Association about the now-defunct USNWR legal scholarship ranking plans. Although no one can know precisely what caused Bob Morse's turn-around, LSA's efforts on this issue were valuable.

Here is an excerpt from LSA's announcement:

The Law and Society Association is pleased to report that the U.S. News and World Report has decided not to proceed with its proposal to add a measure of “scholarly impact” to its law school rankings. This report summarizes the Association’s concerns and actions taken while the metric was under consideration.

The proposed metric for measuring scholarly impact was to be drawn from citations in the Hein database which is comprised primarily of law review articles. The Law & Society Association was concerned with the implications for our members, many of whom write books, book chapters and peer-reviewed articles that appear in and are frequently cited in publications other than law reviews. For that reason, the scholarly impact of our members’ scholarship would not have been accurately represented in the proposed metric. In addition, non-doctrinal and data- driven sociolegal scholarship ordinarily does not amass as many citations as constitutional or purely doctrinal articles do. Moreover, if law schools attempted to game the system to improve their rankings, as has happened with other U.S. News metrics, the intellectual, interdisciplinary, and racial diversity of law school faculties and the range of topics they choose to write on might have been negatively affected.... LSA was not alone in our effort to ensure the unbiasedness and soundness of the U.S. News rankings or to see the project cancelled if obstacles were too big to overcome. The Association is grateful for the extensive work of U.S. law librarians who were deeply engaged with U.S. News and Hein about the difficulties they discovered with the various proposed approaches to a legal scholarship ranking.

The full announcement is here.

H/T Elizabeth Mertz