ABF/Northwestern Legal History Colloquium

This is an advanced seminar that brings together outside scholars, faculty and fellows affiliated with the American Bar Foundation, and Northwestern faculty and students for an exchange of views about innovative research and works-in-progress in legal history. During eight class weeks, we host a faculty workshop where a leading scholar presents a work-in-progress or a recently completed portion of a larger research project. During the other classes, we prepare for the forthcoming scholar-led workshop or discuss the different methods of historical analysis. The papers presented at the workshop reflect a variety of legal history topics and methods, including socio-legal history, economic histories, global histories of law, and research in the history of legal ideas. The workshops themselves are attended not only by the students, but also by members of the faculty of the School of Law and of other schools and departments within Northwestern, ABF-affiliated scholars, and legal historians from all Chicago-area universities. Through the discussion at the workshop presenters receive valuable feedback and suggestions for how to expand or improve their research while Northwestern Law and ABF students and faculty gain a broader view of novel works in legal history.

Organized by Professors Nadav Shoked and Ajay K. Mehrotra

All sessions take place on Wednesdays from 4:30pm - 5:30pm in Rubloff 339.

Spring 2024

January 24
Gautham Rao, Associate Professor, American University

January 31
Luis Fuents-Rohwer, Professor of Law, Indiana University-Maurer School of Law

February 14
Kate Masur, Professor of History, Northwestern University

February 21
Sara Mayeux, Associate Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University Law School

March 6
Mitra Sharafi, Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School

March 13
Kristin Collins, James E. and Sarah A. Degan Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School

April 3
Jonathan Levy, James Westfall Thompson Professor of US History, University of Chicago

April 10
Myisha S. Eatmon, Assistant Professor, Harvard University


Spring 2022

January 26
Allison Tirres, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Strategic Initiatives, DePaul College of Law
The Civil Rights of Immigrants and the Lost Promise of the 1970s

February 2
Joanna Grisinger, Associate Professor of Instruction in Legal Studies, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences
Loud Flights, Angry Neighbors, and Indifferent Bureaucrats: The Civil Aeronautics Board Confronts Noise Pollution

February 16
Kunal Parker, Professor of Law & Dean's Distinguished Scholar, University of Miami School of Law
Law Becoming Procedure

February 23
Stuart Banner, Norman Abrams Distinguished Professor of Law, UCLA Law
Itinerant Judges on a Part-Time Court: The U.S. Supreme Court, 1790-1860

March 9
Barbara Welke, Professor of History and Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School
The Price of Settlement

March 16
Sophia Lee, Professor of Law and History, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
Democratizing Privacy: Free Speech and the Fourth Amendment


April 6
Amalia Kessler, Lewis Talbot and Nadine Hearn Shelton Professor of International Legal Studies, Stanford Law School
Maternalist Arbitration: Frances Kellor and the New York Bureau of Industries and Immigration


April 13
Emily Prifogle, Assistant Professor of Law, The University of Michigan Law School
The Remaking of Modern Rural America: The Heartland’s Legal Landscapes from 1920-2020


Fall 2019

September 18
Michelle McKinley, Bernard B. Kliks Professor of Law, University of Oregon School of Law
Juana de Godinez: Navigating Freedom Inside the Cloistered Households of Religious Women in Colonial Lima

September 25
Timothy H. Lovelace, Jr., Professor of Law, Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Racial Discrimination as a Public Problem

October 9
Claire Priest, Simeon E. Baldwin Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Credit Nation: Property Laws and Institutions in Early America

October 16
Daniel Ernst, Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal History, Georgetown Law
Reefs and Shoals

October 23
John F. Witt, Allen H. Duffy Class of 1960 Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Garland’s Million: The Radical Experiment to Save American Democracy

October 30
Shaun Ossei-Owusu, Assistant Professor of Law, Penn Law
Racialized Help: Legal Aid and the Institution of Slavery

November 13
Kara Swanson, Professor of Law, Northeastern University School of Law
Patent Law’s Hidden Figures: Race, Memory and Invention of a Slave

November 20
Anna di Robilant, Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
The Tensions of Absolute Property