What do Jay-Z, a white supremacist, and Margaret Atwood have in common? They're all people who shape our understanding of the law. Yes, really. 

The driving force behind this class is the idea that the law doesn’t only happen in textbooks or courtrooms. We take as our starting point the idea that law is a “social institution” – it is both made by and helps to make the social world. In order to see and respond to the law, we will read academic and legal sources, but also draw on popular cultural representations like podcasts, newspapers and magazine articles – we’ll even spend some time watching television and listening to music. 

Together we’ll talk about and practice reading these pieces so that academic and legal language doesn’t feel confusing or overwhelming, so that the authors’ key points are clear, and, crucially, so that you can draw on them in your own writing.

The goals:

The overall aim of this course is to help you learn to be as engaged and effective as possible when you are reading and writing critically. By the end of this course, you will feel confident approaching, analyzing and engaging with various forms of writing, including writing written for legal and academic audiences. 

The topic:  

This semester we will focus specifically on the relationship between law and culture, and explore that connection through language. While we cannot address every aspect of the law, we will explore the ways that people think, talk, and write about topics such as crime, racism, abortion, and immigration.

We'll consider questions such as:

• How does law shape our everyday lives?

• How and why is language important when thinking about the law?

• Why does the law sometimes seem to have its own language, and what does that mean in terms of power and justice?

• What can we learn from reading and writing about different representations of law, for example in literature, film or music?

The assignments:

You will have a range of assignments over the semester that will help you hone your critical reading and writing skills. These include annotating course readings, writing short analyses of different aspects of persuasive writing, and working on the different pieces of a larger research paper. The final research paper will give you an opportunity to develop your own ideas and views on one of the themes from the course. You will work on these assignments both in and out of class, and sometimes you’ll share what you’re working on with your colleagues.