The J. Willard Hurst Summer Institute in Legal History is a
biennial event sponsored by the Institute for Legal Studies in
conjunction with the American Society for Legal History (ASLH).
Each Hurst Institute is organized and chaired by a well-known legal
historian and includes visiting senior scholars who lead
specialized sessions.
For each session, a committee appointed by the ASLH reviews
applications from beginning faculty members, doctoral students with
completed or almost completed dissertations, and recent J.D.
graduates, and selects 12 junior scholars from around the world as
Institute Fellows. The Fellows come to Madison for two weeks to
participate in seminars, meet other legal historians, and discuss
their own work. The two-week program is structured but informal,
and features discussions of core readings in legal history and
analysis of the work of the participants in the Institute.
The Next Hurst Institute: June 12-25,
2011
Application Information will be posted in Fall 2010.
Previous Sessions:
The 2001 Hurst Institute The inaugural session was chaired by Lawrence M. Friedman, the Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. The visiting senior scholars were Linda K. Kerber, the May Brodbeck Professor in the Liberal Arts and Professor of History at the University of Iowa, and Robert W. Gordon, now Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and Legal History at Yale Law School.
2001 Hurst Fellows
2001 Fellows' Comments
2001 Hurst Institute Photo
The 2003 Hurst Institute The 2003 session was
co-chaired by Lawrence M. Friedman, Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor
of Law at Stanford Law School, and Robert W. Gordon, Chancellor
Kent Professor of Law and Legal History at Yale Law School. The
program included presentations by guest scholars Barbara Welke,
Associate Professor of History at the University of Minnesota, and
Morton Horwitz, Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History
at Harvard Law School.
2003 Hurst Fellows
2003 Fellows' Comments
2003 Hurst Institute Photo
The 2005 Hurst Institute The 2005 session was again co-chaired by Lawrence M. Friedman, Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, and Robert W. Gordon, Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and Legal History at Yale Law School. The program included presentations by guest scholars Laura Edwards, Professor and Chair of the Department of History at Duke University, and Dirk Hartog, Class of 1921 Bicentennial Professor in the History of American Law and Liberty at Princeton University.
2005 Hurst Fellows
2005 Fellows' Comments
2005 Hurst Institute Photo
The 2007 Hurst Institute The 2007 session was
chaired by Barbara Welke, Associate Professor of History and
Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota. Guest scholars
included Lawrence M. Friedman, Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor of
Law at Stanford Law School, Robert W. Gordon, Chancellor Kent
Professor of Law and Legal History at Yale Law School, Dirk Hartog,
Class of 1921 Bicentennial Professor in the History of American Law
and Liberty at Princeton University, Holly Brewer, Associate
Professor of History at North Carolina State University, and Margot
Canaday, Cotsen-Perkins Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton
University. A special session was hosted by Karl Shoemaker,
Assistant Professor of History and Law at the University of
Wisconsin.
2007 Hurst Fellows
2007 Fellows' Comments
2007 Hurst Institute Photos
2007 Reading List
The 2009 Hurst Institute. Barbara
Welke, Associate Professor of History and Professor of Law at
the University of Minnesota chaired the Hurst Summer Institute in
2009. Guest scholars included Risa
Goluboff, Professor of Law and History and Cadell & Chapman
Research Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law,
Christine
Desan, Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, Matthew
Sommer, Associate Professor of Chinese History, Stanford
University, Lawrence M.
Friedman, Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor of Law at Stanford Law
School, and Robert W. Gordon,
Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and Legal History at Yale Law
School. In addition, special sessions were led by Jeremi Suri,
E. Gordon Fox Professor of History and Director of the UW European
Union Center of Excellence, and by Mitra Sharafi,
Assistant Professor of Law and past Hurst Fellow. Bonnie Shucha,
Head of Reference at the UW Law Library introduced the new Hurst
Collection, and Rick Pifer, Head of Public Services, Library &
Archives, provided a guided tour of the Wisconsin Historical
Society Library.
2009 Hurst Fellows
2009 Draft Program with links to Readings
2009 Fellows' Comments
2009 Hurst Institute Photos