*Mary Nell Trautner is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, and a CULJP board member.

Fall Conference on David Engel’s “The Oven Bird’s Song”
Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy, University at Buffalo, SUNY
October 23, 2015

On October 23, 2015, the Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy at the University at Buffalo, SUNY is holding a one-day conference about David Engel’s 1984 article, “The Oven Bird’s Song: Insiders, Outsiders, and Personal Injuries in an American Community.” For over 30 years, this article has been a central work in the law & society field and is widely considered to be part of the law & society "canon." Engel’s article was among the first in the field to articulate what is now a taken-for-granted idea: that people’s ideas about law and the decisions they make to mobilize law are shaped by community norms and cultural context. It has been reprinted in several law and society edited volumes (including the first Law & Society Reader) and was recently featured as one of just 20 "exemplars" of law and society research spanning from 1963 to 2003 in Schmidt and Halliday's (2009) volume, Conducting Law and Society Research: Reflections on Methods and Practices. In the conference, we will be reflecting on the origins, impact, and future influence of this important work.

I hope you can join us, we’d love for you to attend and share your own thoughts about “The Oven Bird’s Song”! Here’s a peek at the day’s lineup:

Panel 1: Development and Contextualization of "The Oven Bird's Song"
Panelists in this session will talk about the broader context in which the article was written, both in terms of the then-emerging theoretical perspectives in law & society and in terms of Engel’s university context.

• Marc Galanter, Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Wisconsin 
• Barbara Yngvesson, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, Hampshire College
• Stewart Macaulay, Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Wisconsin 
• Alfred Konefsky, Professor of Law, University at Buffalo

Panel 2: Institutional Actors and "The Oven Bird"
This panel addresses the importance of Engel's article to scholars working in a range of areas in law & society. Panelists will discuss the impact of "The Oven Bird" on research on the legal profession, juries and jury decision making, law and social policy, and how ordinary people make decisions about mobilizing law.

• Anna-Maria Marshall, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Illinois
• Valerie Hans, Professor, Cornell Law School
• Lynn Mather, Professor of Law, University at Buffalo
• Eve Darian-Smith, Professor of Global & International Studies, UC, Santa Barbara

Panel 3: Pedagogical Opportunities and Challenges of "The Oven Bird's Song"
This panel offers different disciplinary takes on the article from a pedagogical perspective. We feature panelists from law schools and several social science departments to discuss how they teach the article to law students, undergraduates, and graduate students, including approaches, responses, and challenges.

• Neil Vidmar, Professor of Law and Psychology, Duke University
• Michael W. McCann, Professor of Sociology, University of Washington
• Renee Cramer, Associate Professor of Law, Politics, and Society, Drake University 
• Anne Bunting, Associate Professor of Sociology, York University

Panel 4: Future Orientations: What’s the Research Agenda for the Coming Years?
"The Oven Bird's Song" was written under the influence of the interpretive turn of law and society, which was the new, exciting theoretical framework of that time. Panelists in this session look forward and discuss the new theoretical frameworks of today and the role that "The Oven Bird" plays (or will play) in the future of the field.  

• Yoshitaka Wada, Professor, Waseda Law School (Japan)
• Anne Bloom, Associate Director, Civil Justice Program, Loyola Law School
• Jamie G. Longazel, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work at the University of Dayton
• Scott Barclay, Professor of Political Science and History, Drexel University

David Engel will conclude the day’s conference with a brief response to panelists’ comments and ideas, and a discussion of his forthcoming book, Why We Don’t Sue: Explaining the Absence of Claims in Injury Cases.

Feel free to be in touch if you have questions about the conference or traveling to/visiting Buffalo!

2016 APSA Teaching and Learning Conference
Conference Theme:  Rethinking the Way We Teach:  High-Impact Methods In the Classroom
February 12-14, 2016
Portland, Oregon | Marriott Portland Downtown Waterfront

Join us for a unique meeting to promote greater understanding of high-impact practices and innovative methodologies for the political science classroom. The conference provides a forum for scholars to participate in the scholarship of teaching and learning, share pedagogical techniques, and discuss trends in political science education. We welcome proposals from educators at all levels who teach political science and related subjects—university faculty and administrators, high school teachers, graduate students, research scholars, and others. 

We invite proposals for paper presentations and interactive workshops. Papers are presented in a collaborative working group environment, in which the participants in a theme learn about and discuss each other’s research for the duration of the conference. This working group model has proven to be highly effective at enhancing the instructional effectiveness and scholarly productivity of conference attendees. 

Workshops provide participants with hands-on experience in the use of practical instructional methods that they can take with them to their home institutions. Examples of workshops at previous Teaching and Learning Conferences include using mapping software to teach students how to visualize political information, using games to teach theories of political violence, and how to assess curricula on the basis of students’ knowledge of and skills in environmental sustainability. At this year’s conference, we are particularly interested in having a workshop on teaching about the 2016 elections and cutting edge election techniques.

More information here. Questions? Contact [email protected].

*Renee Cramer is associate professor and chair of Law, Politics, and Society at Drake University; she is also President of the Consortium for Undergraduate Law and Justice Programs.


Welcome to the blog for the Consortium for Undergraduate Law and Justice Programs.  We hope that this website, and the blog in particular, will be a place to think and talk about teaching and learning in undergraduate legal studies and justice studies programs – highlighting the diversity of what we do and who we are, and working to create a record of the innovative and useful strategies we employ in classrooms, experiential learning, and in our own research.  Take a moment to click through the site – we have syllabi from a variety of classes, a growing list of program links, and what we hope will be a similarly growing list of announcements pertinent to our field (hiring? submit your position announcements for free at [email protected])!   Check out our Board of Directors page, and know that members of the Board are available for emails and phone calls as you develop courses, majors, and programs. 

We also have a membership button on the site, if your institution is able to affiliate with CULJP.  In a later blog post, we will go into a bit more detail about the perks of membership – until then, feel free to email me, @ [email protected] for details.

In the coming weeks, you can expect to see blog posts from faculty and graduate students affiliated with undergraduate law and justice programs across the United States.  You will read posts from international scholars, too – and those of us in administrative roles at our institutions.  And, you will have the chance to hear from undergrads in our programs.  We’ve invited a wide range of contributors – you are invited, too!  Please, use the comments section to share with your thoughts and engage in dialogue. And follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@CULJP) to receive notification of new posts. 

Please consider submitting a blog post of your own: 300 – 700 words on teaching, learning, working, and being in the field of undergraduate law and justice studies.  Discuss an assignment you use, a book you’ve read and assigned, or an in-class activity.  Tell us how you bring your research into the classroom, or how you get your students out of the classroom.  Share your perspective as a pre-law major, a recent graduate of a CULJP-type program, a graduate student hoping for a job. 

Send your submissions to [email protected]  - we will send you a note when it goes live on the blog!