Description: Participants examine the relation between law and violence as seen through texts by Sophocles, Olympe de Gouges, Herman Melville, James Weldon Johnson, Louise Erdrich, Irving Howe, and Albert Camus. We aim to spark discussion about the law’s own violence as well as the uses of law in countering racial, sexual, and political violence. At the same time, we consider the role of literature in exposing and rectifying both legal and extralegal terror.

Presider

Melissa J. Ganz, Marquette U

Speakers

Adam Schoene, Cornell U

Joshua Logan Wall, U of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Campbell Birch, Columbia U

Michaela Bronstein, Stanford U

Richard Weisberg, Yeshiva U, NY