We are thrilled to share that former LSA President and 2026 Ronald Pipkin Service Awardee @lbthatsme.bsky.social (Northwestern University) has been appointed to serve as the new @abfresearch.bsky.social Executive Director!
American Bar Foundation
@abfresearch.bsky.social
The American Bar Foundation (ABF) is a sociolegal research institute. We conduct rigorous, empirical research that explores the intersection of law and society—creating insights that underpin today’s most pressing issues.
The ABF has named @lbthatsme.bsky.social as its eleventh Executive Director, succeeding Interim Exec. Director and ABF Affiliated Research Prof. Bryant Garth. She will assume the role Sept 1 and will be the first woman to lead the organization. 🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/leading-soci...
Sociologist Laura Beth Nielsen to Lead ABF into 75th Anniversary - ABF
ABF named Laura Beth Nielsen its eleventh Executive Director, effective September 1. Nielsen will be the first woman to lead the organization where she has been a Research Professor for 25+ years.
americanbarfoundation.org
We were honored to welcome artist Josh Montgomery @joshmontgomeryart.bsky.social to our Ruth Bader Ginsburg Endowed Fund event in New York City, where he presented Equals?, his original tribute to Justice Ginsburg's legacy. Watch Joshua's recap of the event here: youtu.be/gSMU4jY5iGM?...
The ABF is pleased to welcome six visiting scholars to our research community. The scholars of the 2026–27 cohort are: Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Kathryn Birks Harvey, Jennifer Carlson, Sharese King, Stephen Engel, and Nick Cheesman. Learn More: www.americanbarfoundation.org/the-abf-anno...
The ABF Announces 2026–27 Visiting Scholars - ABF
The American Bar Foundation is pleased to welcome six Visiting Scholars to the ABF research community. The scholars of the 2026–27 cohort are: Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Kathryn Birks Harvey…
americanbarfoundation.org
The ABF has awarded doctoral fellowships to three exceptional scholars! These scholars were chosen for their impressive empirical and interdisciplinary research proposals in law and social science and will begin their roles on September 1. Learn More: www.americanbarfoundation.org/the-american...
The American Bar Foundation Announces 2026 Cohort of Doctoral Fellows - ABF
The American Bar Foundation (ABF) has awarded doctoral fellowships to three exceptional scholars. Selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants, these scholars were chosen for their impressive...
americanbarfoundation.org
11 years since the "709 Crackdown" on China's human rights lawyers. Tune in for the 10th China Human Rights Lawyers Day global webinar, with closing remarks from ABF's Terry Halliday. 📅 July 9, 2026 | 9:00am ET 🔗 www.youtube.com/live/EV1lV1t...
What if the U.S. Constitution were written today? ABF Research Professor @tomginsburg.bsky.social examines modern constitutional ideas from Supreme Court term limits, expanded rights, and institutions to protect democracy— ensuring accountability. @ms.now op-ed: www.ms.now/opinion/amer...
Opinion | The case for an updated U.S. Constitution
Tom Ginsburg: The U.S. Constitution is the world’s oldest currently in force, and some would say it’s showing its age.
ms.now
What do today’s Supreme Court decisions mean for birthright citizenship and trans athletes? Northwestern Univ. professors, including former visiting scholar, Kate Masur, break down the legal stakes—pointing to major impacts for civil rights, constitutional law, and more. Read More:
Northwestern experts on today’s SCOTUS decisions on birthright citizenship and trans athletes in organized sports
The U.S. Supreme Court today handed down decisions in major cases, including the constitutionality of Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship and whether transgender athletes are…
news.northwestern.edu
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com The Supreme Court's ruling to uphold birthright citizenship "is a reminder of what a principled, Constitution-bound court should look like,” the editorial board writes.
Opinion | The Supreme Court Gets Birthright Citizenship Right
The Constitution is clear. People who are born in this country and subject to its laws are citizens.
nyti.ms
Congrats to Laura Nelson, winner of LSI’s 2026 Graduate Student Paper Competition! Her article shows how Pennsylvania’s 1780 Gradual Abolition Act made emancipation a struggle over records, legibility, and everyday claims to freedom. Read more here: bit.ly/3SAhXcu
Princeton University Student Laura Nelson Wins Law & Social Inquiry’s 2026 Graduate Student Paper Competition - ABF
The American Bar Foundation (ABF) is delighted to announce that Laura Nelson, a PhD candidate in the Department of History at Princeton University, has won the 2026 Graduate Student Paper Competition…
bit.ly
The ABF is delighted to announce that Laura Nelson, a PhD candidate in the Dept. of History at @princeton.edu, has won the 2026 Graduate Student Paper Competition from Law & Social Inquiry (LSI) for her article, “Registries, Records, and the Making of Emancipation in Pennsylvania.” Learn More:
Princeton University Student Laura Nelson Wins Law & Social Inquiry’s 2026 Graduate Student Paper Competition - ABF
The American Bar Foundation (ABF) is delighted to announce that Laura Nelson, a PhD candidate in the Department of History at Princeton University, has won the 2026 Graduate Student Paper Competition…
americanbarfoundation.org
Former ABF Neukom Chair Devon Carbado led a presentation on "Undocumented Criminal Procedure: Immigration Enforcement & the Fourth Amendment," discussing recent Supreme Court case Noem v. Perdomo. Watch Here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csxk...
"Undocumented Criminal Procedure: Immigration Enforcement & the Fourth Amendment" with Devon Carbado
Saturday, April 25, 2026 Professor Devon Carbado, Elihu Root Professor of Law, NYU School of Law, discussed: Contemporary debate over Noem v. Perdomo treats the case as a doctrinal novelty. It is…
youtube.com
In a new @chicago.suntimes.com article, ABF Affiliated Scholar James Thuo Gathii writes, "The Trump administration’s playbook for Cuba is clear: intensify the hardship and suffering to such an extreme degree of economic collapse and crisis that there will be an uprising." Read More:
Trump’s playbook for Cuba includes human rights violations
The fuel blockade that has been in effect since January has caused cascading crises.
chicago.suntimes.com
Welcome to the 2026 ABF Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows! The ABF has selected five outstanding undergraduate students from across the nation to take part in the 2026 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program. Learn More: www.americanbarfoundation.org/welcoming-th...
The ABF Welcomes 2026 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows - ABF
The SURF Program allows students from underrepresented backgrounds to gain a hands-on experience with an ABF researcher.
americanbarfoundation.org
ABF Affiliated Scholar @hollyfoster.bsky.social's new book, We All Do the Time, examines how incarcerated women maintain family and community ties, and why those connections matter for well-being, belonging, and rehabilitation. Published by @nyupress.bsky.social 🔗: nyupress.org/978147981588...
We All Do the Time
Breaks new ground by showing how women in prison and their families interact through prison boundariesAlthough women make up only 7% of the overall prison po...
nyupress.org
The @polar-journal.bsky.social's Annual Student Paper Prize Competition is taking submissions! The deadline is July 31, 2026, and the prize is open to current students in degree-granting grad programs (MA, PhD, JD, etc.) Learn More: politicalandlegalanthro.org/awards/stude...
Graduate Student Workshops
Call for participants… Each year during the AAA meetings, the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology (APLA) sponsors a series of special workshops in which small groups of graduate studen…
politicalandlegalanthro.org
In a recent Bar and Bench article, ABF Research Prof. @tomginsburg.bsky.social, discusses democratic backsliding, judicial independence, AI, and more. 🔗: www.barandbench.com/interviews/u...
US, Indian Supreme Courts not pushing back enough; Collegium may still be India’s best option: Prof Tom Ginsburg
Tom Ginsburg is the Leo Spitz Professor of International Law at the University of Chicago, working on comparative and international law from an interdisciplinar
barandbench.com
At the American Identity Summit 2026, a recent panel by the Chicago Thinker, ABF Research Prof. @tomginsburg.bsky.social discusses the health of American democracy, the state of constitutional order, and what renewal looks like at 250 years. Watch Here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6C_...
What does it mean to be American? | David Axelrod | Jonathan Turley | John Pinheiro | Tom Ginsburg
YouTube video by The Chicago Thinker Official
youtube.com
Congrats to @lbthatsme.bsky.social of Northwestern University and @abfresearch.bsky.social for winning LSA’s 2026 Ronald Pipkin Service Award! View all winners here: bit.ly/LSAAwards2026
The Pennsylvania Gazette discusses former LSS Doctoral Fellow Shaun Ossei-Owusu's Law on Trial: An Unlikely Insider Reckons with Our Legal System. Highlighting Ossei-Owusu's journey, time at the ABF, and collaboration with Research Prof. @lbthatsme.bsky.social. 🔗: thepenngazette.com/witness-and-...
Witness and Judge
thepenngazette.com
This Wed., 5/13, Chicago-Kent College of Law Prof. Cary Martin Shelby will lead the ABF Speaker Series on "Markets for Black Pain: Law and Marginalization as a Commodity." Shelby will discuss her upcoming book, and touch on for-profit companies commodifying black pain, and its cycles of harm. 🔗:
Speaker Series: Cary Martin Shelby - ABF
Professor Shelby will discuss several chapters of her upcoming book, Markets for Black Pain: Law and Marginalization as a Commodity, which introduces “Markets for Black Pain” as a novel theoretical…
americanbarfoundation.org
Tomorrow, the ABF hosts a New York City reception honoring the legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—featuring remarks from Judge Arun Subramanian (Ginsburg's former clerk) and visual artist Josh Montgomery. Supporting the RBG Fund for Civil Rights and Gender Equality Research.
The Ruth Bader Ginsburg Endowed Fund - ABF
The RBG Endowed Fund honors Justice Ginsburg’s legacy as a legal trailblazer by supporting significant research on civil rights and gender equality.
americanbarfoundation.org
ABF Research Professor @tomginsburg.bsky.social and Gita Wirjawan discuss what sustains constitutional democracy, and what erodes it from within, on the Endgame podcast. Watch Here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE8h...
Why Constitutional Monarchy Might Be the Best Form of Government - Tom Ginsburg | Endgame #266
YouTube video by Gita Wirjawan
youtube.com
This Wed., 5/6, Boston College Law Prof. Aziz Rana will lead the ABF Speaker Series on "The Breakdown of the American Constitutional Compact." Rana will examine the contours of today’s U.S. constitutional crisis, tracing its roots over three decades, the 1930s through the 1960s. Learn More:
Speaker Series: Aziz Rana - ABF
Scholars and commentators increasingly worry that the United States is facing a constitutional crisis, but the exact contours of this crisis remain underspecified. In this talk, Aziz Rana argues that…
americanbarfoundation.org
Global Perspectives on People-Centered Justice: Exploring the Evidence, edited by ABF’s Matthew Burnett and Rebecca Sandefur, spans issues from international development, poverty, and democratic participation to legal technology. Learn More: www.americanbarfoundation.org/global-persp...
Global Perspectives on People-Centered Justice: Exploring the Evidence - ABF
americanbarfoundation.org
This Wed., 4/22, legal anthropologist and associate professor of law at Emory University Deepa Das Acevedo will lead the ABF Speaker Series on "The War on Tenure." Acevedo examines tenure-stream academia to reveal hidden dynamics and obstacles. 🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
Speaker Series: Deepa Das Acevedo - ABF
As academia increasingly comes under attack in the United States, The War on Tenure steps in to demystify what professors do and to explain the importance of tenure for their work.
americanbarfoundation.org
Nearly a century of accumulated civil procedural rules—however well-intentioned—has produced mounting costs, delays, and complexity. ABF Research Prof. and Deputy Dean of the University of Chicago Law School, William Hubbard calls this the "paradox of procedure." Watch the new ABF video:
William H. J. Hubbard Explores Markets and Technology to Promote Access to Justice - ABF
Can market forces can be used to make civil justice systems work more fairly and efficiently, asks William H. J. Hubbard?
americanbarfoundation.org
This Wed., 4/1, Assistant. Prof. of Anthropology Soledad Álvarez Velasco, of The University of Illinois Chicago will lead ABF Speaker Series on "Inhabiting Transit: Migrant Struggles from Global South America to the U.S. and Back Again." 🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
Speaker Series: Soledad Álvarez Velasco - ABF
Transborder migrant transits through the Americas have become a prominent and deeply political phenomenon. This talk examines the contemporary condition of inhabiting transit—the experience of being…
americanbarfoundation.org
In a new episode of the NLR podcast, Professor Shauhin Talesh discusses his new book, Insuring Cyberinsecurity: Insurance Companies as Symbolic Regulators. Talesh is a Professor of Law and Professor of Sociology and Criminology at @ucirvinelaw.bsky.social. 🔗: newlegalrealism.org/2026/03/02/a...
An Interview with Shauhin Talesh on the Cyber Insurance Industry – New Legal Realism
newlegalrealism.org
"The access to justice field has no shortage of good ideas—and yet, the justice gap persists." ABF Affiliated Scholar Margaret Hagan interviewed eleven civil justice professionals, to better identify theories of change that might become a reality. Read more: medium.com/legal-design...
Why the Access to Justice Field Needs Better Theories of Change
We have promising ideas about how to serve more people, in better ways. We just don’t know how to make these ideas stick and scale.
medium.com