AUWCL Faculty Reach Online, International Audiences
January 24, 2019
American University Washington College of Law is home to a rich, vibrant intellectual community, evident in our faculty’s expertise and engagement with the legal world in DC and beyond. And while each year a number of our distinguished faculty publish books that highlight their expertise, many professors at AUWCL underscore their scholarship and share their knowledge and passion with a wider audience through multiple platforms on a national, and global, stage.
Lia Epperson: First Legal Scholar to Receive Multidisciplinary Institute for Advanced Studies Fellowship
In September 2018, Professor Lia Epperson began a fellowship at the Collegium de Lyon – an Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) within the Université de Lyon in Lyon, France.
The institute invites internationally-renowned researchers, teachers and scholars to work together at the same academic site, with the aim of building a high-level scientific community centered on the humanities and social sciences.
Epperson’s project, An Examination of the Competing Constitutional Principles of Expression and Equality in the U.S. and France, is founded in extensive comparative constitutional law research and seeks to examine the similarities and differences in underlying principles of neutrality undergirding the concept of freedom of expression in the United States and of republicanism and secularism in France.
Epperson is one of 14 long-stay fellows currently working at the Collegium de Lyon, and is the first legal scholar to receive this multidisciplinary fellowship since the institute was founded in 2006. Her fellowship will conclude in July. Epperson served as senior associate dean for faculty and academic affairs at AUWCL from 2014-2018 following her role as director of the SJD program from 2012-2014.
Andrew Popper’s Novels Available on Audible
It is not often that law professors and experts expand their written work beyond legal texts and into the realm of fiction – but AUWCL’s Bronfman Distinguished Professor of Law and Government Professor Andrew F. Popper does just that, having published several novels and poems.
This past month, his two most recent law-themed novels – Rediscovering Lone Pine and Sunrise at the American Market – were released as audio books, available now on audible.com and iTunes.
Rediscovering Lone Pine follows the journey of Grant Harper, who must unravel the inexplicable disappearance of a child. And in the course of the frozen voyage through an ice-covered forest, lives change, initiating an insatiable quest covering decades, carried out on neighborhood streets, the courthouse, travails of a returning veteran, and within intensive care unit.
In Sunrise at the American Market, Popper writes about a group of strangers who gather each morning at a convenience store on the outskirts of D.C. Soon a bond is formed, and each character shares their story and challenges with money, relationships, community, and medical crisis. Ultimately, the sunrise group becomes the best of all families, a family of choice, and the market becomes a true home away from home.
Both novels have garnered acclaim from notable voices in the legal community.
''In this novel brimming with life and humanity, Popper explores some of the most challenging legal issues confronting our society today, from compassionate life termination to same-sex marriage,” said Janie Chuang, professor, distinguished author, and former adviser to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. “But at the heart of Sunrise at the American Market is a deeply moving, beautifully observed meditation on the role of friendship and community in our lives.''
Beyond Books
Our faculty scholarship is routinely underscored in the various op-eds and academic blogs written by our distinguished professors. Through these online platforms, our faculty experts are able to share their unique legal perspectives on timely topics. Some recently published pieces include:
- On Just Security, Assistant Professor Rebecca Hamilton writes about the hidden danger of user generated evidence in international criminal justice.
- On SCOTUSblog, Professor Amanda Frost discusses arguments made on how to save the Supreme Court.
- Professor Steve Wermiel uses the SCOTUSblog to emphasize George H.W. Bush’s Supreme Court legacy.
- In Slate, Professor Robert Tsai pens op-ed discussing how President Trump’s talk about utilizing emergency powers is about more than his desire for a wall along the southern border.