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.
2013 Application Information Application period: Dec. 1, 2012 - Jan. 15, 2013.
The 2013 Hurst Institute, June 9-22, 2013, will be chaired by Hendrik Hartog, Class of 1921 Bicentennial Professor in the History of American Law and
Liberty, Professor of History, and Director of the Program in American Studies at Princeton University. More information about guest scholars will be provided at a later date.
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 Program
2009 Fellows' Comments
2009 Hurst Institute Photos
The 2011 Hurst Institute The 2011 session was chaired by Professor Barbara Welke (University of Minnesota) with guest scholars Sarah Barringer Gordon (University of Pennsylvania), Lawrence M. Friedman and Robert W. Gordon (Stanford Law School), Dylan Penningroth (Northwestern University), Lauren Benton (New York University), and Christopher Tomlins (UC-Irvine).
2011 Hurst Fellows
2011 Program
2011 Hurst Institute Photo
2011 Fellows' Comments
