2024
Geoffrey R. Kirsch
“Opening New Channels: Nineteenth-Century American Literature and the Law of Commerce”
Ph.D., English, Harvard University
Julien Mezey Dissertation Award
Annual prize awarded to the dissertation that most promises to enrich and advance interdisciplinary scholarship at the intersection of law, culture and the humanities.
Submit for this Award
The Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities invites submissions for the Julien Mezey Dissertation Award. This annual prize is awarded to the dissertation that most promises to enrich and advance interdisciplinary scholarship at the intersection of law, culture and the humanities.
The Association seeks the submission of outstanding work from a wide variety of perspectives, including but not limited to law and cultural studies, law and critical race studies, law and gender and sexuality, legal theory and environmentalism, law and literature, law and psychoanalysis, law and visual studies, legal history, legal theory and jurisprudence. Scholars completing humanities-oriented dissertations in SJD and related programs, as well as those earning PhDs, are encouraged to submit their work. Applicants eligible for the 2025 award must have defended their dissertations successfully between March 2024 and March 2025.
The Association will cover the Mezey Prize winner’s travel and lodging costs to attend the annual meeting.
Submission Instructions
Nominations for the 2025 award must be received on or before March 15, 2025.
Each applicant must submit the following:
- a letter by the nominee detailing the genesis, goal, and contribution of the dissertation;
- a letter of support from a faculty member familiar with the work;
- an abstract, table of contents, and selected chapter of the dissertation;
- contact information for the nominee.
Please submit these materials to lch@lawculturehumanities.com.
Featured Winner(s)
Show Full List
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2023
Nina Farnia(co-winner)
“Imperialism in the Making of US Law 1940-2008”
Ph.D., History, University of California, Davis
Sabarish Suresh (co-winner)
“The Unconscious of the Indian Constitution: Traumatic Histories and Repetitions”
J.S.D., Comparative Legal Thought, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
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2022
Dale Mitchell
“Forms of Law: The Adaptive Affordances of the Cultural Legal”
Ph.D., Law, University of the Sunshine Coast
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2020
Emily Prifogle
“Cows, Cars, and Criminals: The Legal Landscape of the Rural Midwest”
Ph.D., Law and History, University of Michigan
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2019
Tiffany MacLellan
“Painting Pasts and Futures: Transitional Justice, Museums, and Aesthetic Interruptions”
Ph.D., Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University
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2017
Kojo Koram
“The Sacrificial International: The War Drugs and Imperial Violence of Law”
Ph.D., Birkbeck School of Law, University of London
Lecturer in Law at the School of Law and member of the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex -
2016
BAŞAK ERTÜR (co-winner)
“Spectacles and Spectres: Political Trials, Performativity and Scenes of Sovereignty”
Ph.D., Birkbeck School of Law, University of London
Lecturer, Birkbeck School of Law, University of LondonANNA LVOVSKY (co-winner)
“Queer Expertise: Urban Policing and the Construction of Public Knowledge about Homosexuality, 1920-1970”
Ph.D., History of American Civilization, Harvard University
Academic Fellow, Columbia Law School -
2015
Audrey Golden (co-winner)
“Restorative Justice and the Global Imagination”
Ph.D, English, University of Virginia
Sarah higinbotham (co-winner)
“The Violence of the Law: Aesthetics of Justice in Early Modern England”
Ph.D, English, Georgia State University
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2014
Stacy Douglas
“Curating community: Museums, Constitutionalism, and the Taming of the Political”
Ph.D. Law, Kent Law School, University of Kent
Assistant Professor, Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University -
2013
Hester Betlem
“Law, Life, and the Goddess in Rural South India”
Ph.D., Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University
Lecturer, History and Liberal Studies, Western Washington UniversityJoseph Fischer
“Sex and Harm in the Age of Consent”
Ph.D., Political Science, University of Chicago
Postdoctoral Fellow, Pembroke Center, Brown University -
2012
JOSEPH FISCHEL
“Sex and Harm in the Age of Consent”
Ph.D., Political Science, University of Chicago
Postdoctoral Fellow, Pembroke Center, Brown University -
2011
ZEB TORTORICI
“Contra Natura: Sin, Crime, and ‘Unnatural’ Sexuality in Colonial Mexico, 1530-1821”
Ph.D., History, UCLA
Visiting Professor, History, Tulane University -
2010
REBECCA RIX
“Gender and Reconstitution: The Family and Individual Basis of Democracy Contested, 1870-1932”
Ph.D., History, Yale University
Assistant Professor, History, Princeton University -
2009
CHRISTINE HONG
“Legal Fictions: Human Rights Cultural Production and the Pax Americana in the Pacific Rim”
Ph.D., English, University of California – Berkeley
Assistant Professor, Literature, University of California – Santa Cruz -
2008
BRENNA BHANDAR
“Re-covering the Limits of Recognition: The Politics of Difference and Decolonisation in John Borrows’ Recovering Canada: The Resurgence of Indigenous Law”
Ph.D., Birkbeck School of Law, University of London
Lecturer, University of Kent Law SchoolHonorable Mention
ORNA ALYAGON DARR
“The Dilemma of the Serious-but-hard-to-prove Crime of Witchcraft in Early Modern England (1542-1736)”
Ph.D., Law, Haifa University
Faculty of Law, University of Haifa -
2007
GABRIELLA COLEMAN
“The Social Construction of Freedom in Free and Open Source Software: Hackers, Ethics, and the Liberal Tradition”
Ph.D., Socio-cultural Anthropology, University of Chicago
Assistant Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University -
2006
SAGIT MOR
“Imagining the Law: The Construction of Disability in the Domains of Rights and Welfare – The Case of Israeli Disability Policy”
JSD, New York University School Law
Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Haifa