Researching Law Volume American Bar Foundation - Flipbook - Page 18
R ESEA RC HI N G L AW
VOL 3 0 | N O 1 | WI N T E R 2 019
Coming into grad school with that intellectual
orientation can make things difficult because,
for example, the sociologists want you to have a
certain approach to your study of race, and the
historians want you to have a certain approach,
and the anthropologists want you to have a certain
approach. The ABF is not invested in maintaining
those kinds of disciplinary boundaries. The faculty
here is serious about helping doctoral fellows to
produce high quality, interdisciplinary work. People
here understand the kind of work I want to produce.
I don’t feel like I have to contort myself or my work to
fit into this community.
– Asad Rahim
(2017–19 ABF Doctoral Fellow)
The research fellows are an incredible group of
colleagues, and I so enjoyed being a part of that
community of young scholars and the discussion
to which we contributed through our research,
answering questions that are central to the ABF’s
mission: access to justice, representative diversity
within the legal profession, and reforms to legal
systems. My cohort and the fellowship were a
reflection of the ABF’s core values, as well as
proof of its commitment to cultivating scholars,
to producing excellent research, and to fostering
diversity.
– CJ Ryan
(2017–18 ABF Doctoral Fellow)
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colleagues in the academy,
especially law professors, which
are not a terribly diverse group,
racially speaking. It was so
refreshing to be able to interact
with other scholars of color
and have parity in our fellows
cohort between men and
women scholars.
The research fellows are an
incredible group of colleagues,
and I so enjoyed being a part
of that community of young
scholars and the discussion to
which we contributed through
our research, answering
questions that are central to
the ABF’s mission: access to
justice, representative diversity
within the legal profession, and
reforms to legal systems. My
cohort and the fellowship were
a reflection of the ABF’s core
values, as well as proof of its
commitment to cultivating
scholars, to producing excellent
research, and to fostering
diversity.”
The Future of the
Fellowship Program
The ABF’s doctoral and
postdoctoral fellowships were
designed to provide scholars
with the resources, connections
and additional opportunities
they need to advance in their
fields and over the course of
their careers. In fact, one goal
of the fellowships was to help
scholars find their intellectual
fit in a way that is not available
to them in their university
departments.
“It does students a world of
good to be at the ABF. I think
it’s really important that the
Fellowship program stays
residential,” Nielsen said.
“Being in an interdisciplinary
environment like the ABF,
where you’re going to seminars
every week and talking to
different faculty members, that’s
crucial. These scholars are
treated like a faculty member.
It’s a great transition, when they
figure out how to allocate their
time and work on their own.”
While scholars benefit in
numerous ways from the
fellowship program, the ABF
continues to examine how the
program can be expanded and
improved in the future. Nielsen,
Nelson and Mehrotra would
like to see the ABF connect with
more institutions to create new
fellowships that allow recipients
the opportunity to continue to
make important connections.
Nielsen and Nelson also
said they would like to see
an increase in the number of
scholars who apply and the
resources offered for each
fellowship.
“More resources are no small
matter because if we’re having
students move from their home
institutions to Chicago, there
are costs involved in that,
and there is now a lot more
competition for these doctoral
fellowship programs around
the country. It’s important
for us to remain competitive,”
Nelson said.
With regards to the ABF/
NSF Doctoral Fellowship in
Law & Inequality, Nelson
added that it’s important
that the fellowship continue
to emphasize serving
underrepresented groups
and offering recipients the
opportunity to work at the ABF
for a longer period of two years.
some discussions with other
organizations that might want
to partner with us in the same
way that the AccessLex Institute
and the National Science
Foundation (NSF) have, so we’ll
see how those develop.”
Not only has the ABF doctoral
and postdoctoral fellowship
program demonstrated its
success in the past, but it’s clear
that the program has a bright
future ahead of it.
“A one-year fellowship is not
long enough for people to really
get the benefit of the programs,”
Nelson explained.
Mehrotra said developing
new partnerships would be
essential to further enriching
the program.
“What we’ve done is branched
out and added new areas. I
think we’ve already taken a
pretty robust program and
tried to make it even more
meaningful,” Mehrotra said.
“It would be great if we could
find other partners to expand
the program. We’ve had
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