Socio-legal news
Welcome to the news section of the SLSA website. This area is divided into the following categories:
- Events
- Publications
- Research and funding
- Vacancies
- Online resources
- Networks
- Consultations, inquiries and surveys
- Other announcements
If you would like an item added to the news section, please contact the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
New for week ending 3 July 2020
Events
SLSA 2020 Law and Literature Symposium: online 15 July 2020
Publications
Feminist Legal Studies: Call for reflections on COVID-19
International Journal of Law in Context: news and call for papers
Leverhulme Trust: Annual Review 2019
Nuffield Foundation: latest newsletter
Journal of Legal Research Methodology: call for peer reviewers, board members and submissions
New and forthcoming human rights titles from Intersentia: 20% discount available
Research and funding
Nuffield Foundation Research, Development and Analysis Fund: open for applications
Online resources
Doing Ethnography Remotely: Stanford Centre for Global Ethnography – six video interviews with researchers
Other announcements
Inspiring Women Lawyer's Project: one week left to nominate
Vacancies
PhD studentship on smart cities, Queen's University Belfast
A PhD studentship is offered at Queen’s University Belfast on the theme of the Governance and Management of Data in the Smart City. This is a part of The Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions in Horizon 2020, Co-funding of regional, national and international programmes (COFUND) programme called CITI- GENS. This is available to to early stage researchers who not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of their host organisation for more than 12 months in the three years immediately prior to the call deadline: 10 July 2020. Further details are available on the website.
University of California Irvine, Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship in Criminology, Law and Society
Applications are invited for the above fellowship. See website for details. Closing date: 1 November 2020.
Online resources
Doing Ethnography Remotely: Stanford Centre for Global Ethnography – six video interviews with researchers
In this video series, the Center's co-directors Sharika Thiranagama (Anthropology) and Sylvia Yanagisako (Anthropology) interview six ethnographers who have conducted research remotely. See website for details.
IEL Collective: call for contriutions to IEL Pop-up Collection
The IEL (international economic law) Collective invites contributions for its online pop-up collection of artefacts (objects or images). Please see website for details.
Networks
Pracademia Network: new network for UK and international pracademics
The new Pracademia Network aims to:
- inform the development of training programmes
- encourage and share best practice and
- facilitate internal/external collaborations
for the benefit of a much wider group of local, national and international stakeholders; including academics, students, Higher Education Institutions, and other organisations. The network has been set up with the help of Advance HE following research at Sheffield Hallam University around former/current practitioners who now lecture/research in HE. See the website for further details.
Network: New AHRC humanities-led network will put social justice at the heart of AI research
The Ada Lovelace Institute and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) have today launched JUST AI, a network of researchers and practitioners, led by Dr Alison Powell from LSE, that will establish a multidisciplinary research base around ‘just AI’ – AI that is ethical, works for the common good and is effectively governed and regulated. The humanities-led network will build on research in AI ethics, orienting it around practical issues of social justice, distribution, governance and design, and seek to inform the development of policy and practice. See website for full details.
European Reproductive Justice network: call for interest
This is a call to anyone interested in being part of a European Reproductive Justice network. The aim of the network is to share knowledge of law, society and culture across Europe in relation to reproductive justice. The network recognises reproductive justice as a core element of human rights, particularly, but not exclusively for women. As such, the focus is upon, but is not limited to:
- ability and means to become pregnant
- ability and means to prevent pregnancy
- support around and for decision to remain pregnant
- support around and for decision to discontinue a pregnancy
- obstetric healthcare
- gynaecological healthcare
- obstetric violence
- economic and social support for parents or those wishing to become parents
This is an interdisciplinary network for academics, professionals and activists. If you are interested in being part of the network then please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Invitation to Join the Global Research Network
Expressions of interest are invited for SLSA members to the Global Research Network, a meeting place for doctoral and early career scholars in law and the humanities.
Network members support one another by, for example, arranging visits to their university to speak, sharing useful information about the newest developments in the field, and participating in regular webinars on key topics of interest (publication strategies, career planning, etc). There are PhD and early career writing groups that meet monthly. There is a members’ forum that includes tips and resources, job and fellowship opportunities, and conference calls and publication opportunities. We are also establishing a Think Tank (with programmes in various field of law), and inviting established scholars to act as mentors.
Please contact our This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. via email if you have any questions or fill in the sign-up form online, where you will find more information.
The Legal Cultures of the Subsoil Database – new database launched by the Institute of Latin American Studies
The Legal Cultures of the Subsoil Database compiles legal actions and documentation (artefacts) devised in the context of mining conflicts. It has resulted from an ESRC-funded anthropological project led by ILAS lecturer, Dr Ainhoa Montoya, that explored how legal languages, instruments and institutions are employed by different actors within the field of environmental politics, specifically in the context of mining conflicts. It currently contains information on six mining projects in Central America, with plans to expand to other Latin American regions in the future.
To learn more about the database and the wider 'Legal Cultures of the Subsoil' project please consult the following blog contributions:
- ‘The Legal Cultures of the Subsoil’: mapping the use of law in environmental politics in Central America
- A database of legal actions and artefacts devised in conflicts over mineral resources
The database will continue to be developed and expanded during 2020, as part of a British Academy–GCRF sponsored project, ‘The Juridification of Resource Conflicts: Legal Cultures, Moralities and Environmental Politics in Central America’. A Spanish-language version will be available by the end of 2020. If you have any questions or comments about the database or the wider research projects, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The IEL Collective: launch of a new international economic law initiative
The IEL Collective was launched on Thursday 23 May 2019. It is an initiative started by research centres based at seven law schools around the UK and we are hoping to include more partners from around the world shortly. The IEL Collective provides a space for critical reflection on the complex interactions in the growing field of international economic law and exploring how epistemological and methodological diversity in the discipline can contribute towards the development of a more holistic landscape of scholarship on law and the governance of the global economy. The Collective aims to stimulate conversations about plurality, representation and, criticality, in researching, teaching and practising international economic law and spark new conversations about the future of the discipline. Visit the website for more information
Current partners include: Cardiff Law and Global Justice, University of Cardiff; Centre for Critical International Law, University of Kent; Centre for Law, Regulation and Governance of the Global Economy, University of Warwick; Human Rights Centre, University of Essex; Human Rights Law Centre, University of Nottingham; Liverpool Economic Governance Unit, University of Liverpool; School of Law, University of Bristol; Social Critiques of Law, University of Kent.
To receive more information and get involved, please sign up here.
Consultations, inquiries and surveys
UKRI launches consultation on Open Access policy
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has today launched a consultation as part of its Open Access Review. The consultation will inform the development of a new open access policy, aimed at ensuring that the published outputs of research are widely and freely accessible to all. See website for details. Closing date: 17 April 2020.
Other announcements
Survey on Gendered Understandings of Human Rights : call for human rights law academics to participate
Human rights law academics are invited to participate in an SLS-funded research project by filling out a short survey on gendered understandings of human rights and how this influences the human rights law syllabus. Please visity the survey page to complete the survey.
Can you spare five minutes of your time for an inspiring woman lawyer or group of women lawyers?
There is still one week left to nominate an inspiring woman lawyer (or group of women lawyers) in England or Wales who deserve to be recognised more widely.
The Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies has recently launched an important research project on inspiring women lawyers which aims to raise the profile of women whose contributions to law and other women are little known beyond their professional field.
Unlike the wonderful work of the First 100 Years project, the study aims to create an oral history audio archive. Interviews with up to 50 women will be deposited at the British Library Sound Archive as a national resource.
The research project is particularly interested in finding out about the life experiences of a diversity of women lawyers, particularly from working-class backgrounds; Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) heritage; women who came to England and Wales as migrants or refugees; women of different faiths; from lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer groups; (LGBTQ); those with disabilities; and women who work in less well-known and less-lucrative areas of law.
Please fill in the five-minute survey and nominate an inspiring yet little known woman lawyer (or group of women lawyers) in England or Wales. Survey closes on 10 July 2020.