THIS SUMMER, STANFORD LAW SCHOOL LAUNCHED THE Stanford Center for Law and History, designed to be a hub on campus for scholarly and public engagement in the burgeoning field of legal history. The center, directed by Amalia Kessler (MA ’96, PhD ’01), the Lewis Talbot and Nadine Hearn Shelton Professor of International Legal Studies and professor (by courtesy) of history, will provide infrastructure for those studying the intersection of law and history. It will also serve as a bridge between scholars and students in the Stanford community and those with shared interests based outside of Stanford.

The center will promote a closer collaboration among the many who work on law and history through a broad range of conferences, workshops, reading groups, and lectures. “Legal history is a growing and thriving field,” says Kessler. “We have an increasing number of people across campus who are interested in this topic but have little opportunity to engage with one another in any kind of sustained and systematic way. We are really excited to be able to bring everyone together to share work and ideas and thus to further research and teaching in this vibrant arena.”

The center is also offering a fellowship for a graduate student completing training in legal history and aiming to pursue a career in academia. Elizabeth Katz has been named the center’s inaugural fellow. Katz has already received significant scholarly recognition, including the honor of being named a Kathryn T. Preyer Scholar by the American Society for Legal History.