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About LSJ | |
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~*~ CLASS/LSJ Graduate Certificate Program
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The undergraduate Bachelor of Arts major in Law, Societies, and Justice provides students an interdisciplinary liberal arts education regarding the unique forms of social control, institutionalized disputing, and justice commonly identified with law or legality. Courses inquire into the historically embedded principles and institutional practices associated with diverse legal domains --- constitutional, criminal, common, civil, and administrative law as well as fundamental human rights -- in the United States and throughout much of the world. The program encourages complex, critical assessments about the workings and implications of law in different social contexts according to normative standards of justice that are both internal and external to the rule of law itself.
Students may earn either a major or a minor in Law, Societies, and Justice. The track-based curriculum is committed to cultivating basic analytical, writing, and communication skills as well as substantive knowledge and understanding about the diverse socio-legal subject matter. Graduates of the program pursue a wide diversity of career lines directly or indirectly related to law, including: the legal profession; legal administration (courts, corrections, probation and parole, etc.); law enforcement (police, FBI, etc.); rights advocacy; government and politics; public policy development and management; academic research and teaching.
The Law, Societies, & Justice program originated in the early 1970s as the Society & Justice program, a title that it carried for nearly thirty years. The program was created and directed for nearly two decades by Professor Ezra Stotland. Professor Stotland imagined a broad interdisciplinary program that integrated analysis of social behavior, legal administration, and critical thinking about justice, with an emphasis on criminal justice. He brought together a wide array of committed faculty across campus and from the community to teach and inspire students about the substantive issues at the heart of the program. Under his tireless, dedicated leadership, the SoJu program became a model of innovative pedagogy and outreach to the broader community.
Following Professor Stotland's retirement, the 1990s proved to be a difficult, uncertain time for the SoJu program. Key faculty traditionally involved in the program retired or assumed new responsibilities and the program budget was significantly cut in the early part of the decade; the program was on the verge of elimination. Nevertheless, the program continued through this period to deliver quality education to a reduced number of majors due to the hard work of the staff in the Political Science Department, a small but committed faculty group on and off campus, and several directors committed to sustaining the popular undergraduate major.
After a decade of struggling for survival, the program was provided new resources that facilitated reconstruction and revitalization beginning in the year 2000. Through a combination of temporary funding from a university Tools for Transformation grant and new permanent financial support from a University Initiatives Fund award, the College of Arts and Sciences, and several departments (especially Political Science), the program was reborn with a new name, a new faculty core and staff, an updated substantive vision, and a reconstructed curriculum. By 2004, the program has six appointed faculty members, six adjunct faculty, and three instructors, plus teaching assistants from across the social sciences. It is widely recognized for its cutting-edge, sophisticated, and challenging course offerings. The Law, Societies, and Justice program is rapidly becoming one of the most exciting majors on the University of Washington campus and one of the most innovative programs in the study of law and society around the nation.
- LSJ is proud to announce Michael McCann is one of two UW professors among 189 artists, scholars, and scientists chosen as Fellows by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Michael McCann, along with Ann Gale, associate professor of art, was selected from among 2,800 applicants for the prestigious fellowships.The Guggenheim Foundation offers fellowships to further the development of scholars and artists by assisting them to engage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts, under the freest possible conditions. Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. This year's grants total $7,600,000.
- LSJ is proud to present the Law, Societies and Justice Summer Rome Program and the Guatamala Exploration Seminar. Details about these exciting opportunities can be found by clicking on the following link: LSJ Study Abroad
- The undergraduate LSJ program is closely connected to the Comparative Law and Society Studies (CLASS) Center and graduate mentoring program. Present or potential LSJ majors may want to check out the speakers, colloquia, and related activities of the CLASS Center, whose web page is listed on the left side of this page.
- On March 31, 2007, the University of Washington Guatemala Project held a benefit dinner and auction entitled "El Vuelo del Quetzal," at the Knights of Columbus Hall. The event, which was planned, organized, and executed by students who attended Prof. Angelina Snodgrass Godoy's 2005 and 2006 study abroad programs on human rights in Guatemala, aimed to raise $50,000 to support education for social change in coffee-growing communities. Thanks to the extraordinary hard work of the students and the generosity of the UW community, the event was successful in reaching this goal - and even overshooting it by several thousand dollars!
The UW Guatemala Project is a partnership between students in Prof. Godoy's classes and the young people who pick coffee on plantations in San Marcos, Guatemala. Designed in conjunction with the NGO Movimiento de Trabajadores Campesinos (Movement of Peasant Workers) in San Marcos, the project adopts an innovative, integral approach to education, recognizing that poor educational outcomes are not only a reflection of scarce funds for tuition, but also the frequent lack of community-based support for students. The funds raised will be used to help empower young leaders from 6 coffee growing municipalities by engaging them in a regional support network and encouraging small-scale development projects of their own design, in addition to helping cover their tuition costs. Future UW classes will visit these students and further the partnership with them through participation in exchange activities. Now that the project has achieved its first major fundraising objective, students in the UWGP hope to see its work grow in new directions, continuing to empower young people in both the United States and Guatemala to become human rights leaders. These students are already at work on some new ideas.
Prof. Godoy's class, a 12-credit intensive seminar for undergraduates, focuses on taking the study of human rights "beyond the books" to immerse students in the realities of human rights as they are experienced on the ground in Guatemala, exploring the issues scholars, aid workers, policymakers and human rights advocates face of addressing past atrocities while adapting to respond to new challenges. It focuses on themes that are broadly applicable to other countries and contexts, including Cold War armed conflicts, maquiladora ("sweatshop") labor, trade agreements, controversies about development, and fair trade. Rather than defining Guatemala's plight as an object of foreign scrutiny, the course explores connections to the United States, and Seattle in particular, exploring students' relationships to the global dynamics that manifest themselves in Guatemala and beyond and raising questions of accountability and social change. After returning from Guatemala in 2005, UW students began the effort that is today the UW Guatemala Project, a hands-on human rights effort in which successive classes have had the opportunity to participate as part of the study abroad seminar. Participation in the UWGP has become a key way for students to stay engaged in the issues examined in Guatemala even after their return to Seattle, and in many cases, even after their graduation from the university.
For more information about the UW Guatemala Project, or to make a donation, please visit http://students.washington.edu/uwgp.
For more information about Prof. Godoy's study abroad seminar, please visit
http://faculty.washington.edu/agodoy/Guatemala%20study%20abroad.html.
The CLASS/LSJ Newsletter: "CLASS Action"
LSJ produces a biweekly newsletter for faculty and graduate students involved with or interested in the aims of the program. It highlights the publications and activities of faculty members, provides information about upcoming events and lectures related to LSJ, and acts as a sounding board for program director Michael McCann.
This page last updated
6/20/08
Website created by: W. Washington
Photos: Deborah Hughes