The Humanities Research Institute, supported by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, seeks to select two Pre-Doctoral Fellows in Legal Humanities for the 2021–22 academic year.

Legal humanities examines how the law, society, culture, politics, and economy are mutually constituted. It thus draws from a range of methodologies, including those dealing with representation (e.g., literary, cultural, and performance studies), history, philosophy, and sociological perspectives. Legal humanities understands the law as both reflecting and actively influencing societal values, aspirations, anxieties, biases, and notions of justice, examining how law constitutes and shapes the social world in which it is embedded.

The HRI-Mellon Pre-Doctoral Fellows will participate in all activities of the Legal Humanities Research Group, as led by the HRI–Mellon Faculty Fellow in Legal Humanities. The Fellows will pursue an individual research project in an area of the legal humanities; participate in a seminar and programs focused on the methods and challenges of interdisciplinary work in the legal humanities; work together on a collaborative, public-facing project in the field; and work with the research group to develop a legal humanities curriculum.

Advanced PhD students from all humanities disciplines, including the humanities-inflected social sciences, whose research and teaching interests lie in the area of legal humanities are invited to apply. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, human rights; transitional justice; racial, im/migrant, and/or gender justice; Indigenous sovereignty; and similar issues. The application portal is open now through 5:00 p.m. on January 15, 2021. Read more about this opportunity and how to apply.