Law and Society Association (LSA) Awards Several ABF Scholars in 2018
May 17, 2018, Press releases
CHICAGO, May 17, 2018 — The Law and Society Association (LSA) — a scholarly organization committed to recognizing, supporting, and disseminating scholarly research and publishing in the field of sociolegal studies — has awarded several LSA prizes in 2018 to American Bar Foundation (ABF) scholars, including the Stanton Wheeler Mentorship Award to ABF Research Professor Laura Beth Nielsen, the John Hope Franklin Prize to 2017-18 ABF William H. Neukom Fellows Chair in Diversity and Law Angela Onwuachi-Willig, the Graduate Student Paper Prize to former ABF/NSF/LSA Doctoral Fellow Ayobami Laniyonu, the Dissertation Prize to former ABF/NSF/LSA Doctoral Fellow Amanda Hughett, the Herbert Jacob Book Prize to former ABF Doctoral Fellow Alisha Holland, and the Harry J. Kalven Jr. Prize to former ABF Board Member Lauren B. Edelman.
The Stanton Wheeler Mentorship Award is given to an outstanding mentor of graduate, professional, or undergraduate students working on issues of law and society. A Research Professor at the ABF and a Professor of Sociology and Director of Legal Studies at Northwestern University, Nielsen was awarded for her exemplary record of mentorship at Northwestern University, the ABF, and within the broader law and society community. As Director of the Center for Legal Studies at Northwestern, Nielsen involves undergraduate and graduate students in research projects and provides mentorship that has led her students to prestigious Ph.D. programs and teaching positions. Additionally, Nielsen's leadership, strategic management, and individualized mentoring for the ABF's doctoral fellowship program helped the program successfully nurture 18 doctoral fellows, as well as an additional 15, who were supported by a separate ABF doctoral fellowship that Nielsen administered.
Onwuachi-Willig, who is chancellor’s professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, received the John Hope Franklin Prize, which is awarded to the best article on race, racism, and the law published within the last two years, for her article, "Policing the Boundaries of Whiteness: The Tragedy of Being ‘Out of Place’ from Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin.” In "Policing the Boundaries of Whiteness," Onwuachi-Willig identifies important consistencies in the use of violence as racial boundary work and incorporates historical, sociological, political, and legal scholarship, as well as addresses class and gender issues. Onwauchi-Willig is currently the 2017-18 ABF William H. Neukom Fellows Chair in Diversity and Law.
Laniyonu, who is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles, received the Graduate Student Prize, which is awarded to the graduate paper that best represents outstanding work in law and society research, for his paper, “Coffee Shops and Street Stops: Policing Practices in Gentrifying Neighborhoods.” In "Coffee Shops and Street Shops," Laniyonu explores the effect of gentrification and neighborhood change on policing patterns and emphasizes the importance of spacial dimensions in the analysis of urban policing. He was an ABF Doctoral Fellow from 2016-2018.
Hughett, who is a postdoctoral fellow at SUNY-Buffalo’s Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, received the Dissertation Prize, which is awarded to the dissertation that best represents outstanding work in law and society research in 2017, for her dissertation, “Silencing the Cell Block: The Making of Modern Prison Policy in North Carolina and the Nation.” Bringing history to life, “Silencing the Cell Block” makes an important contribution to the field of rights work by documenting change over time in the field of prisoner rights using archival research. Hughett's dissertation demonstrates how the impact of such well-intentioned legal advocacy limits activists, who are seeking more substantive change within prisons. Hughett was an ABF Doctoral Fellow from 2015-2017.
An Assistant Professor in the Politics Department at Princeton University, Holland received the Herbert Jacob Book Prize, which is awarded to the best book in law and society scholarship published in 2017, for her book, "Forbearance as Redistribution. The Politics of Informal Welfare in Latin America" (published by Cambridge University Press in 2017). Drawing on original research andilluminating how millions of people obtain housing and economic opportunity through micro-level decisions of local politicians, Holland innovatively illustrates a tradition of law and society scholarship that situates law in the micro decision-making of everyday politics. Holland was an ABF Doctoral Fellow from 2013-2014.
The Agnes Roddy Robb Professor of Law and Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, Edelman received the Harry J. Kalven Jr. Prize for empirical scholarship that has contributed to the advancement of research in law and society. Over the past twenty years, her published articles have received awards and appeared regularly in the American Journal of Sociology and Law and Society Review, and her book, "Working Law: Courts, Corporations, and Symbolic Civil Rights," (published in 2016) has advanced the field of law and society and significantly shaped the subfields of law and professions, dispute resolution, and race and gender discrimination. Professor Edelman was a member of the Board of Directors of the ABF from 2003-2013.
To learn more about the LSA's 2018 awards, click here.
About the American Bar Foundation
The American Bar Foundation (ABF) is among the world’s leading research institutes for the empirical study of law. The ABF seeks to expand knowledge and advance justice through innovative, interdisciplinary, and rigorous empirical research on law, legal processes, and legal institutions. To further this mission, the ABF will produce timely, cutting-edge research of the highest quality to inform and guide the legal profession, the academy, and society in the United States and internationally. The ABF’s primary funding is provided by the American Bar Endowment and the Fellows of The American Bar Foundation.
Please find a PDF of this press release here.
Posted by Danielle Gensburg
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