Victoria Saker Woeste
Research Professor
- 750 N. Lake Shore Drive
- 4th Floor
- Chicago, IL 60611
Education
Ph.D., Jurisprudence & Social Policy, University of California, Berkeley
B.A., History and American Studies, University of Virginia
Bio
Victoria Saker Woeste was educated at the University of Virginia (B.A.) and the University of California at Berkeley (M.A., Ph.D.), where she trained as an interdisciplinary academic in law and…
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Research focus
Understanding how law mediates and shapes the relationships among the state, the market, and society in U.S. history; uncovering institutional and organizational responses to legal and economic change. Recent scholarship has investigated the relationship of Henry Ford's antisemitism to the law of group libel, American racial politics, and 1920s political economy. Future projects include a biography of Louis Marshall, constitutional lawyer and Jewish civil rights advocate (1856-1929), and further study of the legal history of American agriculture in the second half of the twentieth century.
Projects
- Suing Henry Ford: America's First Hate Speech Case
- Latest finding: May 15, 2008
- This ongoing project examines a well-known event in the life of Henry Ford -- a 1927 federal libel lawsuit against him and his antisemitic newspaper -- from the perspective of the people who sought…
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Commentary
May 8, 2009
At a local (Lafayette, Indiana) town hall meeting in April, I had the chance to ask Senator Obama about his philosophy on Supreme Court appointments--what he would look for, what sort of values,…
Jan 20, 2009
Local news coverage of an Inaugural viewing party showcased my discussion of President Obama's use of historical allusions in his speech, which has already drawn some lackluster reviews:
…
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Publications
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“Louis Marshall”
- Yale University Press
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“Group Libel”
- Congressional Quarterly Press
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“Agriculture and the State, 1790-2000”
- Cambridge University Press
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Presentations
- Henry Ford: Unmasking the Self-Made Myth
- Dec 2009
- The Turn from Law: Louis Marshall, the Lynching of Leo Frank, and the Jewish Civil Rights Movement, 1910-1945
- May 2009
- What if They Held a Race Riot and Nobody Cared? Woodland Neighborhood Jews, the Dearborn Independent, and Legal Guarantees of a Free Press in 1920s Cleveland
- Mar 2009
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Professional Service & Recognition
- Consultant, The People v. Leo Frank, documentary film, Ben Loeterman Productions for Frontline, PBS, and the National Endowment for the Humanities (2009)
- Wayne D. Rasmussen Award Committee, Agricultural History Society, 2010-12
- Nominee, Board of Trustees, American Society for Legal History, 2009
- Founder and Co-Chair, Chicago Legal History Seminar
- Consultant, Court History Association, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Illinois
- Chair, Surrency Article Prize Committee, American Society for Legal History
- Precinct Captain, Obama for America, West Lafayette, Indiana
Reading list
- It Is Our Choices That Make Us What We Truly Are: Moral Choice in the Harry Potter Novels
- Victoria Saker Woeste
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Links
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