Osnabrück Summer Institute on the Cultural Study of the Law

At this year’s annual conference of the ASLCH (Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities) at Birkbeck Law School in London at the end of March, the Osnabrück Summer Institute’s organizers, alumni, and a faculty member hosted a panel, as well as a round table, that reflected the Institute’s ongoing contribution to the study of law and culture.

Besides interacting intellectually, participants from all four Summer Institutes, organizers, and several faculty members met in a London pub on Saturday evening discussing ongoing and possible future research projects, reminiscing about the past Summer Institutes, and discussing the formation of a closely knit Summer Institute alumni network.

For the organizers it was invigorating to hear about the lasting impact of the Institute on the scholarly work and academic careers of the former participants and about the numerous collaborations that have formed in its wake. In order to facilitate further collaboration, we are currently establishing an alumni network. Moreover, plans are being made to host panels at next year’s ASLCH conference and to gather again… then at a bar in Virginia, though!

We’re happy to announce that the 5th Osnabrück Summer Institute on the Cultural Study of the Law will be held from August 4 – 16, 2014 at the University of Osnabrück. The 5th International Osnabrück Summer Institute on the Cultural Study of the Law aims to further encourage and promote the interdisciplinary study and research of the interrelations between law and culture, based on the idea that the extended cultural study of the law will foster profitable scholarly exchange and dialogue between legal studies and the humanities. The Summer Institute was founded in 2009 and since then has hosted more than 120 students from over 80 countries.

The Osnabrück Summer Institute brings together leading scholars in the field of cultural legal studies with international graduate students from the humanities, legal studies, the social and political sciences, art, and history in order to create a high profile opportunity for the comparative study of law and culture and their complex relation. The Institute provides an effective combination of workshops, lectures, panels and presentations, both by faculty members from the participating institutions and a number of guest lecturers, specifically selected as leading experts in their respective fields. The Institute will offer placements for 20-30 international graduate students (PhD and post-doc level) for a period of two weeks. A limited number of scholarships and travel grants are available.

Most recent Summer Institute faculty included: Rosemary Coombe (York/Toronto), Fiona Macmillan (Birkbeck), Helle Porsdam (U Copenhagen), Joseph Slaughter (Columbia), and Kay Schaffer (U Adelaide).

We are inviting qualified students from all over the world whose work is concerned with the interdependence and interaction between law and culture to join a unique experience of scholarly collaboration and exchange during an intensive program with workshops, public lectures, panel discussions, and excursions.

The call for applications will open in January 2014. You can download the announcement poster here.