Cultivating Networks and Innovative Scholarship in Law and Courts, June 2022

Wesleyan University, Middletown CT

Investigators

Abstract

In spite of efforts by both professional associations and other groups concerned about the diversity of the subfield, women and minorities are underrepresented among the scholars who study law and courts. We know that women scholars within the law and courts field, as compared to their male counterparts, face barriers to tenure and promotion due to disparities in resources for research, heavier teaching loads and service expectations, and a lack of parity in placement of law and courts-focused articles in top disciplinary and subfield journals. The effects of these barriers are amplified for those women scholars who are black, indigenous, or from another minority group. This project—a workshop and mentoring community—will serve as one targeted effort to improve representation in the law and courts field. In addition to serving as a space for junior women and nonbinary scholars to gather and receive feedback on their research, the workshop aims to facilitate connections between junior scholars and senior mentors in the field. Further, this workshop will invite undergraduate and graduate researchers (those pre-Ph.D.) to take part in the professional development sessions. The workshop thus serves a three-fold purpose: it aids in rectifying the “leaky pipeline” problem for women and non-binary people, assists law and courts scholars in gaining acceptance in the top journals, and facilitates collaborative projects by bringing detached communities together. This workshop will provide a novel forum for cutting edge research on law and courts by junior women scholars to be shared with and reviewed by leading scholars in the field, thus advancing knowledge across a variety of topics within the subfield. This project grows out of a successful pilot effort conducted over the past year where the researchers: (1) identified members of the community of junior women in law and courts through a widely distributed online survey, (2) developed a series of online peer-to-peer writing groups, and (3) engaged in outreach efforts to decrease the invisibility of research by members of the writing groups and other junior women scholars. The in-person workshop will continue these efforts by bringing together a community of junior women scholars and will augment the pilot efforts by engaging a group of leading women scholars in the subfield for professional development and networking. The workshop will be held in June 2022. Participants will be selected through a multi-stage, competitive process which will evaluate the suitability of their projects for the workshop and will also take into account the global diversity goals of the workshop cohort. At the one-and-a-half-day workshop, scholars will receive feedback on their work from peers and senior scholars and will also participate in professional development and networking panels. Workshop participants’ progress will be tracked and promoted through the PIs’ outreach channels. It is thus the aim of the proposed workshop and ongoing peer and senior mentoring to assist junior scholars in producing and publishing high-quality research in order to achieve professional success, both at their institutions and in the discipline. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.