Virtual Working Groups, 2026-2027
ASLH Themed Virtual Legal History Workshop
Deadline for Applications: June 30, 2026
The ASLH invites applications for Themed Virtual Legal History Workshops.
The goal of the Themed Virtual LHWs is to provide a space for scholars with common interests to discuss or present innovative work in their fields, and cultivate relationships. Every year the Annual Meeting includes a small number of exciting pre-conferences that give scholars the opportunity to convene around their shared interests. Themed Virtual Legal History Workshops offer a venue for scholars to form and maintain connections beyond the ASLH Annual Meeting and for a variety of initiatives, in a context of declining funding and other impediments to travel.
We welcome proposals for reading, writing, teaching, and other kinds of groups. Examples might include: a reading groupfocused on a particular legal field or methodology, or an interdisciplinary reading group connecting scholars in legal history with another field; a writing group for scholars at a particular career stage (e.g., 2nd book; post-retirement) or within a particular field; a journal special issue initiative; or teaching. Depending on the goals of your proposed workshop, membership might be open or restricted (by number, career stage, or other factors). Workshops can meet during one semester, over the course of the academic year, or over the summer. The schedule and structure should reflect the goals of the proposed workshop.
We encourage applications from scholars at all career stages. One goal of the ASLH’s virtual initiatives is to increase engagement between international and U.S.-based scholars, and we encourage international applicants.
We will proceed in 3 stages:
- Stage 1: submission of proposals for themed legal history workshop;
- Stage 2: CFA for selected workshops circulated to ASLH email list and posted on its website;
- Stage 3: notification of schedule and/or participants for 2026-2027 workshops.
Elements of Initial Application:
(1) Workshop Proposal (1 page). The proposal should address the following points:
(a) subject;
(b) type (writing or reading group, for example);
(c) goals; (e.g., connected to an ASLH pre-conference or special journal issue; learning a new field; teaching in a given field;
(d) format (e.g., open or fixed group, pre-circulated papers or not, time pre-set or determined by participants, reading list pre-established or set by workshop members).
(e) proposed schedule (summer, academic year, full year, monthly, etc.).
(2) Workshop Coordinator Bios (1 page total – 1 paragraph for each coordinator, including email, current appointment, field of research, career stage & ASLH membership status)
The Committee on Digital Initiatives will select up to three workshops for 2026-2027.
Please direct questions & submissions to: Naama Maor nmaor@tauex.tau.ac.il
Application Deadline: June 30, 2026
Previous Working Groups:
AY 2025-2026
Consent: A Global Legal History (Bianca Premo & Adriana Chira)
This reading group will gather to discuss the global history of consent. Its focus is on historicizing liberal notions of consent and understanding other regimes of assent and refusal in the past. We encourage applications from all scholars, including graduate students, early career scholars, and internationally based scholars. Participants’ expertise might reside in a range of periods, regions, and legal historical subfields, including, but not limited to, the histories of sex; marriage; medicine; healing and the body; crime and punishment; religious conversion; and political participation. (Deadline for applications: August 22)
Environment, History, and Law Global Workshop Series (Susan Bartie and David Schorr)
The triangle ‘environment – history – law’ suggests a wealth of opportunities for productive transdisciplinary scholarship: Historical analysis of environmental law, environmental histories of legal change, legal histories of the environment, etc. The workshop will meet approximately every 6 weeks, with a short hiatus from June to August. The workshops will be held online at different times to accommodate a range of time zones. At the workshop we will discuss pre-circulated draft papers. An expert in the area is invited to begin the discussion, followed by general comments and questions from all participants.
Roundtable on Radical Legal Advocacy (Marie-Amélie George and Dan Farbman)
We are gathering a group of historians, legal scholars, and practitioners to participate in an iterative process of discussion, collaboration, and research on the topic of the history of radical legal advocacy. The ultimate goal of these meetings is some form of collective/collected writing–likely a book, although possibly a special journal issue. We hope to draw in participants who have worked or are interested in working on the subject of legal advocacy in relation to social movements and radical politics across time periods, geography, and subject matter. Although radical politics is generally associated with the political left, we encourage those studying the right to join the conversation. (Deadline for applications: August 22)