Center for Law, Justice and Culture director highlights student, alumni engagement and announces fall 2022 events

From Dr. Kevin Uhalde
Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for Law, Justice and Culture

It’s a great pleasure to begin my first full academic year as the Director of the Center for Law, Justice, & Culture. I was delighted to take on this role in January, joining the Center’s Graduate Director, Dr. Haley Duschinski, and Assistant Director and Pre-Law Advisor Larry Hayman, Esq. Dr. Duschinski is on sabbatical this year, so Dr. Kathleen Sullivan has taken up the reins of our graduate program.

She and Dr. Duschinski received a competitive OHIO 1804 Fund for a new initiative, “Reimagining Undergraduate Law, Justice and Culture at Ohio University,” that is matching graduate mentors from our M.A. program with undergraduates interested in the scholarly aspects of law and society study. This is just the latest of the programs and opportunities that foster the sense of community our students, faculty, and alumni value so much in the CLJC—and make the job of director so enjoyable.

Before previewing our exciting (and growing!) lineup of upcoming events, I want to highlight some of the exciting news from the spring and summer. We co-sponsored several public events, including An Examination and Discussion of the Arbery and Rittenhouse Verdicts, featuring our own Dr. Vincent Jungkunz and CLJC alumna Olayemi Olurin, Esq. ('15), and a screening of Who We Are: A History of Racism in the United States, again with Dr. Jungkunz.

Another CLJC alumna, Leah Wolfe, Esq. ('07), returned to campus to give advice on legal careers in the federal government and have dinner with some of our LJC Certificate students. And the annual Pre-Law Day drew many more CLJC and OHIO alumni on April Fool’s Day, including keynote speaker Judge Zachary Saunders ('08).

Judge Saunders walked from courthouse to campus again in July to preside over the final day of the Summer Law and Trial Institute—its seventh year! This program, which features over a dozen legal alumni, has long been one of my favorites, and not just because my own son participated this time (opening attorney for the prosecution). Almost 80 students applied and 20 were accepted, many from the southeastern Ohio and Appalachian region, and participated for free, thanks to generous financial support from our alumni.

The summer institute is one of many outstanding programs and experiential learning opportunities for students that CLJC, and especially Larry Hayman, offers students: a profile in April’s OHIO News gives some sense of his importance to us and the University. Under his supervision and following an award-winning showing last fall, the OHIO Mock Trial Team competed at the Great Lakes Invitational and Ohio Regional competitions in the spring.

Law, Justice and Culture Certificate students in ACLU-OU organized the first-ever Student ACLU Statewide Conference, and a film screening and discussion in April highlighted our ongoing collaboration with the Ohio Innocence Project and OIP-U. Another exciting part of this collaboration is a new CLJC/OIP Internship and Social Justice Internship Support Fund, thanks to a donation by OHIO alumna Leah Recht, Esq. ('06), which enabled OIP-U Vice President Jocelin Arbenz ('23) to spend part of her summer at the University of Cincinnati College of Law.

Also new, the generous support of alumni Carol Bryant ('70) and Ret. Col. Fred Bryant, Esq. ('69) created the Law School Application Support Fund, which helped nine students from the College of Arts and Sciences on their way to legal degrees. This fund was featured by the University on Giving Day, and because of a generous matching gift from David Crane, Esq. ('72, MA '73), will continue to support law school bound students. And congratulations to LJC Certificate student Maddie Denny ('25), recipient of the Yousef Faroniya Undergraduate Certificate Scholarship in Law, Justice & Culture. Our generous donors are enabling us not only to continue but to grow our community. We’re grateful!

You’ll be receiving announcements of many exciting events this semester, including a public lecture by Commissioner Mohamed “Shafie” Ameermia on the South African Human Rights Commission, our Constitution Day Lecture by Dr. Christine Scott-Hayward on “Punishing Poverty: The Constitutionality of Cash Bail,”  Wrongful Conviction Day events, and a LJC Free Film Screening of "My Cousin Vinnie" on Nov. 30. I wish everyone well for the coming months!