Reading Groups

Students and Faculty members at the Law School have the opportunity to intellectually connect with one another outside of conventional coursework through reading groups. Reading groups are small groups organized either by students or faculty members that meet regularly during the semester to discuss a set of readings on a chosen topic. Designed to engage students in new ways and with salient topics that may or may not be addressed in other coursework, reading groups increase student-faculty interaction, enhance the intellectual life of the school, and provide a mechanism to address new and emerging topics of legal inquiry. These reading groups will provide intellectual space for participants to sharpen critical skills related to textual analysis, the framing of legal issues, and the integration of new knowledge. Reading groups can address any topic with a relation to law, from food law to race and reparations or moral philosophy. Previous reading groups have addressed topics like feminist legal theory, mindfulness, tax policy, and decarceration.
  • Spring 2024
    • Crime Fiction & the Law: Prof. Lentz-Meyer
      This reading group will use Dot Hutchinson’s The Collector series to explore a variety of themes in crime fiction. The group will touch on such issues as evidence, criminal procedure, victim’s rights, and the human element involved in solving crimes.
      1CR, Fridays (occasional) 1-3p, LAW 118

    • The Meaning of Money: Prof. Tait
      Money, besides being a means to an end, also has meaning above and beyond the transactional. Money historically and stereotypically signifies power, ability, and achievement; conversely it may signify inequality, want, or unfulfilled desires. Money, in the family context, may signal love, connection or the absence of either. In terms of circuits of household money, individuals and families earn differently, and they spend differently, creating meaning, expectations, and localized traditions. This reading group will explore the various ways in which money has meaning for individuals and families. We will read think about money, inheritance, consumption, and want while reading parts of sociological texts, legal scholarship, and novels and watching some reality television.
      1CR, Tuesdays (occasional) 4-6, LAW 310
    • Science Fiction & the Law: Prof. Hutchings
      Science fiction authors often use imagination and speculation to address topics relevant to the world today. Often these topics are directly related to the law – legal “personhood” and AI, cloning and genetic alteration, dystopian governments, and more. This 1-credit reading group will meet to discuss some of the legal issues addressed by selected science fiction classics. The group will plan on reading two novels and watching their film adaptations. We will meet at least 5 times over the semester.
      1CR, Tuesdays (occasional) 4-6p, LAW 102
  • Fall 2023
    • Comics & the Law: Profs. Skalbeck & McAdams
      An exploration of the law of comic books and the discipline of using visual storytelling for persuasion and explaining the law.  Using the Lynda Barry work “Syllabus” as a structural framework for exploring narrative creativity, we will all develop an expressive style and narrative voice.  Along the way, we’ll also look at the law of comic books, the use of comics to portray the law and questions of content use and attribution.  The course requires no prior knowledge of intellectual property and you don’t have to have any artistic skills to participate.  We’ll You will create a comic as a final class project, including work in the Boatwright Book Arts Studio to experience the tools of print making.
      1CR, Tuesdays (occasional) 10-11:50a, LAW 172

    • Contemporary Black Feminist Perspectives on Contracts & Property: Prof. Jackson Sow 
      Professor Jackson Sow will lead the reading group in an exploration of contracting authority and proprietorship in law from the perspective of Black feminist legal scholars such as Bernadette Atuahene, Cheryl Harris, Wendy Greene, Teri McMurtry-Chubb, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, and Patricia Williams. Together, the group will read McMurtry-Chubb’s Race Unequals and Williams’ Alchemy of Race and Rights, along with shorter articles dealing with employment contracts and natural Black hair, Detroit’s foreclosure crisis, and beyond—all through the lenses of America’s miner’s canaries.
      1CR, Tuesdays 4-5p, LAW 300

    • Effective Student Leaders: Profs. Craft & Sklut
      By invitation only; for student organization leaders to discuss & reflect on leadership and teamwork competencies.
      1CR, Tuesdays (occasional) 6-8p, Law 300

    • Examining Whiteness: An Introduction: Prof. Samuel-Siegel
      The practice and study of law in the U.S. often fail to account for the racialized nature of U.S. society. Among these gaps are explorations of the ways whiteness functions to apportion privilege, normalize inequity, and dictate convention.  In this reading group, we will begin to explore the meaning and operation of whiteness in the law and our own lives regardless of racial identity.    
      0.5CR, Thursdays (occasional) 3-4:30p, LAW 172

    • Mermaids & Maritime Law: Prof. Lentz-Meyer
      These sirens of the sea are not always what you hope they’ll be. In this reading group students will read Mira Grant’s Rolling in the Deep and Into the Drowning Deep as well as supplemental material to explore themes relating to maritime law, disability law, and the media.
      1CR, Fridays (occasional) 1-3p, LAW 118

    • Rage of Innocence: Prof. McConnell
      This reading group will study Kristen Henning’s book, The Rage of Innocence:  How America Criminalizes Black Youth. The book is an analysis of racist policing in America: the day-to-day brutalities largely hidden from public view and endured by Black youth growing up under constant police surveillance and the persistent threat of physical and psychological abuse. In addition to reading the book together, we will review several short trainings Prof. Henning created, along with experts from across the country, to help practitioners address the issues raised in the book. We discuss, at a minimum, the trainings around defending adolescence for children of color, defending sexual identity development & challenging sexualized myths about youth of color, and policing by proxy: shifting the narrative about black and brown youth.
      We will meet five times throughout the fall semester on Monday evenings from 6:00-8:00. Students will read 2-3 chapters before each session. You will need to bring a short comment or question to each class session to spark group discussion based on the readings. We will also review and discuss the trainings. At the end of the semester, we will have a special class dinner to wrap up our discussions.
      0.5CR, Mondays (occasional) 6-8p, LAW 118

    • Science Fiction & the Law: Prof. Hutchings
      Science fiction authors often use imagination and speculation to address topics relevant to the world today. Often these topics are directly related to the law – legal “personhood” and AI, cloning and genetic alteration, dystopian governments, and more. This 1-credit reading group will meet to discuss some of the legal issues addressed by selected science fiction classics. The group will plan on reading two novels and watching their film adaptations. We will meet at least 5 times over the semester.
      1CR, Tuesdays (occasional) 4-6p, LAW 101
  • Spring 2023
    • Alex Clay Hutchings: Science Fiction and the Law (one credit). 

    • Julie McConnell: The Rage of Innocence (one credit).
      This reading group will study Kristen Henning’s book, The Rage of Innocence:  How America Criminalizes Black Youth.  The book is an analysis of racist policing in America: the day-to-day brutalities, largely hidden from public view and endured by Black youth growing up under constant police surveillance and the persistent threat of physical and psychological abuse In addition to reading the book together, we will review several trainings that have been created around various chapters.  Prof. Henning brings in experts from across the country to explore the themes in the book.

    • Robin Meier: Klara and the Sun (one credit).
      This one-credit reading group will focus on Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Klara and the Sun and the growing impacts of artificial intelligence in our society. Using the novel as a launching point, we will read various articles and discuss the use and misuse of technology in business and particularly in the legal profession. Members of the legal community will join some of the sessions to help guide our discussion.

    • Doron Samuel-Siegel: Examining Whiteness: An Introduction (no credit).
      The practice and study of law in the U.S. often fail to account for the racialized nature of U.S. society. Among these gaps are explorations of the ways whiteness functions to apportion privilege, normalize inequity, and dictate convention. In this reading group, we will begin to explore the meaning and operation of whiteness in the law and our own lives regardless of racial identity.
  • Fall 2022
    • Janice Craft and Laura Webb: Mentoring & Leadership (one credit).
      This reading group explores skills for good mentoring and leadership in the legal profession. Participants will discuss how to effectively cultivate mentoring relationship and thoughtfully use those relationships (both as mentors and mentees) to develop, and foster the development of others, as lawyers and professionals. In this group, students will develop skills to mentor others within the profession as mentors and to identify, develop, and maximize mentoring relationships as mentees; develop a deeper understanding of mentoring relationships and how mentors and mentees can grow within these relationships; develop professional and leadership skills; and develop metacognition and reflective skills.
    • Alex Clay Hutchings: Science Fiction and the Law (one credit). 
      Science fiction authors often use imagination and speculation to address topics relevant to the world today. Often these topics are directly related to the law – legal “personhood” and AI, cloning and genetic alteration, dystopian governments, and more. This 1-credit reading group will meet to discuss some of the legal issues addressed by selected science fiction classics. The group will plan on reading two novels and watching their film adaptations. We will meet at least 5 times over the semester. This semester we will read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. 
    • Molly Lentz-Meyer: Zombie Apocalypse and the Law (one credit, full year).
      Does the rule of law go out the window with the zombie apocalypse or become more important than ever? Using Mira Grant’s Newsflesh series as a jumping off point, this reading group will explore such wide-ranging topics as bioethics, election law, cloning, and more.
    • Luke Norris and Allison Tait: Law and Inequality (one credit).
      Inequality is pervasive in law and society, but discussion of it is too often absent in law school classrooms. This reading group will shift that focus by concentrating on law’s relationship to inequality. It will introduce students to legal research mining that relationship spanning across different areas of law, axes of inequality, and disciplinary approaches to understanding inequality.
    • Kenny Reveredo (J.D. ’23): Hang Out, Free Food, Cool Book (no credit).
      This reading group provides a space for thoughtful discussion of left-wing political literature through readings of philosophical works including, this semester, Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur. 
    • Andy Spalding: Corruption, Human Rights, Orientalism, and Qatar (one credit).
      This group will first examine the corruption and human rights allegations surrounding Qatar’s 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup.  It will then engage the question of whether commentary on those issues reflects what scholars have long called "orientalism:" prejudices toward the Islamic Middle East that serve to reinforce traditional structures of privilege and domination.
    • Tamar Schwarz and Laura Webb: The Mindful Lawyer. 
      The Mindful Lawyer explores how lawyers can use mindfulness to manage stress, improve overall well-being, and become stronger practitioners. Class sessions include mindfulness practice as well as discussion of readings on relevant topics such as developing physical and cognitive well-being, cultivating a growth mindset, fostering optimism and resilience, finding balance in our lives, and humanizing the law school experience and the practice of law.
  • Spring 2022
    • Erin Collins and Patrick Rice (L’22): Decarceration and Prison Abolition (no credit).
      This reading group identifies and critically explored ideas surrounding decarceration and prison abolition through a careful reading of Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis.  
    • Meredith Harbach: Selected Topics on Regulating Reproduction. 
      This reading group aims to develop students’ understanding of the interrelationship of legal rules, politics, ideology, and socio-economic realities that shape reproductive rights and justice. Students will explore meaning of “reproductive rights” and “reproductive justice,” and consider several topics, including access to contraception and reproductive health services, historical and contemporary state control over procreation (including sterilization), abortion regulation, and the state and federal roles in reproductive justice.
    • Alex Clay Hutchings: Science Fiction and the Law.
      Science fiction authors use imagination and speculation to address topics relevant to the world today. Often these topics are directly related to the law – legal “personhood” and AI, cloning and genetic alteration, dystopian governments, and more. This non-credit reading group will meet to discuss some of the legal issues addressed by selected science fiction classics. The group will plan on reading one sci-fi novel and meeting three times over the semester. This semester we will read Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. We will debate the issues of bio-ethics, cloning, and property rights in bio-medicine. Lastly, we will watch the 1993 film adaptation of Jurassic Park and discuss the differences between the book and film treatments of these controversial topics, as well as the changing perceptions of genetic alteration in the 30 years since Jurassic Park’s publication.

    • Kenny Reveredo (L’23): Hang Out, Free Food, Cool Book (no credit).
      This reading group provides a space for thoughtful discussion of left-wing political literature through readings of philosophical works such as The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord and The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

    • Allison Tait and Abby Dreiling (L’24): 1L Doctrine and Inequality Reading Group (no credit).
      This reading group addresses the ways in which the 1L curriculum and the doctrines taught in 1L classes overlooks or occludes inequalities that law creates through such doctrines. This group addressed questions of false neutrality, the framing (or ignoring) of marginalized and minoritized identities, and the wages of these oversights. 
  • Spring 2019
    • Erin Collins and Allison Tait: Feminist Legal Theory (one credit).
      This reading group takes up questions within feminist theory, queer theory, and other critical theories in order to examine constructions of gender and the roles legal systems play in those constructions. We will explore some of the general themes and debates that have emerged as feminists attempt to understand and critique law’s explicit and implicit constructions of gender. We will also discuss developments and disagreements within the feminist literature about how to understand gender and how best to approach questions of gender and legal regulation.