Wednesday, August 6, 2014

The Charles W. McCurdy Legal History Fellowship

Charles W. McCurdy
[As a long-time admirer of Professor McCurdy, I’m very pleased to have received the following email from University of Virginia’s Risa Goluboff and Brian Balogh announcing the Charles W. McCurdy Legal History Fellowship.]

Beginning in the 2015-2016 academic year, the Miller Center at the University of Virginia will join with the University of Virginia Law School to create the Charles W. McCurdy Legal History Fellowship. The fellowship supports completion of exceptional dissertations in legal and constitutional history and that connect with the Miller Center's mission. The application deadline for the fellowship will be February 2nd, 2015. . . .

[S]ince 2000, the Miller Center fellowship program has helped launch the careers of more than 134 scholars whose dissertations employ history to shed light on American politics, public policy, foreign relations, science and technology policy, the impact of global affairs on the United States, and media and politics.  In addition to funding these scholars, the Miller Center provides training to allow them to market their scholarship for broader audiences, and pairs them with a “dream mentor”—a senior scholar in the fellow’s field who provides critical guidance during their fellowship year.

Eighty former fellows now teach at major universities, with seventy of them holding tenure or tenure-track positions. Fellows have published 50 books with major presses, and they regularly place op-eds related to their research in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and other media. You can read more about the fellowship program and the achievements of its alumni on our website.

For many years, the University of Virginia has maintained a nationally renowned Legal History Program. With numerous eminent faculty in the Law School, the Miller Center, and the Corcoran Department of History, legal history scholarship at the University is both deep and wide. In addition to numerous scholars of the legal history of the United States, faculty are also expert in the legal histories of Britain, China, Mexico, the Ottoman Empire, and ancient Rome and Greece. This vibrant community of scholars supports a Legal History Workshop in which prominent legal historians from other institutions present their work, a legal history writing group in which faculty and students support each other’s writing, and a joint JD/MA in history program. More information on legal history at the University of Virginia is available [here].

The McCurdy Legal History Fellow will receive a $32,000 stipend during the fellowship year.  The Legal History Fellow will be in residence at the Law School, where he or she will spend the majority of her/his time on dissertation research. The Fellow will also help coordinate the Legal History Workshop and have the opportunity to present her or his own work there. Each legal history fellow will be paired with a “dream mentor” and will attend the annual spring fellowship conference at the Miller Center.  They will also be trained in bringing their scholarship to bear on public debates and formally present their scholarly work.

The McCurdy Fellow will benefit from the unique opportunity created by the synergies between the Law School and the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.