Wallace Johnson First Book Program

Criteria

Scholars working toward the publication of first books in legal history.

Amount

N/A

Deadline

TBD

The Wallace Johnson Program for First Book Authors provides advice and support to scholars working toward the publication of first books in legal history, broadly defined. In conversation with peers and with the advice of senior scholars, participants develop and revise book proposals and sample chapters, as well as meeting with guest editors to learn about approaching and working with publishers.

The Johnson Program is open to early career, pre-tenure scholars, publishing in English, who have completed PhDs or JDs and are working on first books in legal history. Scholars with expertise in all chronological periods and geographical fields are encouraged to apply, as are applicants who may not (yet) identify as legal historians. The Program provides substantial travel and accommodation funding to support attendance at Program meetings.

Applications for the 2019-2020 Johnson Program will open in the early summer of 2019. Thereafter, the program will continue biannually, with the next Johnson Program in 2021-2022.  

The 2018-2019 Johnson Program

The inaugural Johnson Program, led by Professor Reuel Schiller, began in November, 2018 at the ASLH Annual Meeting in Houston. It includes three in-person workshops and one remote consultation on work in progress:

    • November 2018: One-day workshop at the ASLH Annual Meeting (Houston, TX), introduction to book publishing and prospectus writing
    • Spring 2019: Remote meeting, peer and senior scholar feedback on draft prospectus
    • Summer 2019: Two-day workshop on draft chapters, University of Pennsylvania Law School
    • November 2019: Concluding Roundtable at the ASLH Annual Meeting (Boston, MA)

Committee Members

  • Barbara Young Welke (Chair)
    University of Minnesota

  • Lauren Benton
    Vanderbilt University

  • Sam Erman
    USC Gould School of Law

  • Kurt Graham
    National Archives and Records Administration

  • Reuel Schiller
    UC Hastings College of Law

  • Rayman Solomon
    University of Rutgers-Camden School of Law

  • Matthew Sommer
    Stanford University

Past Recipients

2018-19

Kevin Arlyck (Georgetown University)

Judging Sovereignty: The Federal Courts and Foreign Affairs in the Age of Revolution

2018-19

Winston Bowman (Federal Judicial Center)

A Nation of Courts: Federal Judicial Power and the Politics of Independence, 1861-1891

2018-19

Wesley Chaney (Bates College)

Stolen Land, Broken Bodies: Law, Environment, and Violence in Northwest China

2018-19

Trina Leah Hogg (Oregon State University)

“Our Country Customs”: Law and Trade in Southern Sierra Leone, 1861-1915

2018-19

Amanda Hughett (University at Buffalo)

Silencing the Cell Block: The Making of Modern Prison Policy in North Carolina and the Nation

2018-19

Elizabeth Lhost (University of Wisconsin, Madison)

The Office of Islamic Law: Paperwork, Politics, and Possibilities in Modern South Asia, 1800-1950

Related Awards

  • John Phillip Reid Book Award
    Named for John Phillip Reid, the prolific legal historian and founding member of the Society, and made possible by the generous contributions of his friends and colleagues, the John Phillip Reid Book Award is awarded annually for the best monograph by a mid-career or senior scholar, published in English in any of the fields defined broadly as Anglo-American legal history, with a preference for work that falls within Reid’s own interests in seventeenth- through nineteenth-century Anglo-America and Native American law. View Award
  • Craig Joyce Medal
    The Society depends on the volunteer labors of its members. It is fortunate in the number of its members who are willing to join in the business of the Society, which is to foster scholarship and teaching in the broad field of legal history. View Award
  • Sutherland Prize
    The Sutherland Prize, named in honor of the late Donald W. Sutherland, a distinguished historian of the law of medieval England and a mentor of many students, is awarded annually, on the recommendation of the Sutherland Prize Committee, to the person or persons who wrote the best article on English legal history published in the previous year. View Award