Welcome
Associate Dean’s welcome
Dear web visitor,
Thank you for visiting the website of the Jurisprudence and Social Policy (JSP) Program. JSP is the oldest and most distinguished PhD program in law and social science, and law and the humanities, in the United States. For thirty years (1978-2008) JSP has offered a doctoral degree for students interested in the empirical and normative study of law in its social, political, and economic contexts. Our faculty and students work in a variety of different scholarly traditions including law and society, law and economics, law and psychology, philosophy, and political theory. Organized under the regulations of UC Berkeley’s renowned Graduate Division and an integral part of the UC Berkeley, School of Law, one of the nation’s leading law schools, JSP is among the most distinctive graduate programs in the world.
As we mark our thirtieth anniversary, JSP faculty and alumni note with excitement the growth of our field. Top law schools are increasingly eager to build internal PhD programs, or establish formal joint degree programs with different disciplines. Strong concentrations in graduate legal studies now exists at many of the great research universities, including the University of Wisconsin, Northwestern University, Harvard University, and Princeton University. While there are many productive ways to link law to the research tools of the disciplines, we have committed ourselves to pursing the broadest interdisciplinary approach that includes both law and the social sciences, and law and the humanities. While our students generally specialize in some portion of this spectrum, they benefit from being exposed to teachers and peers whose research emerges from other traditions, but which provides new purchase on the law.
I’m especially excited to welcome prospective doctoral students, because I am an alumnus of the program (JD 1987, PhD 1990). Throughout my career, my JSP degree has been a door opener into opportunities in teaching and scholarship in academic disciplines and law schools, as well as social policy research institutions and advocacy groups. For me a personal dream came true in 2003 when I returned to Berkeley to rejoin the JSP program as a professor. Since 2004 I’ve been privileged to serve as its chair.
I believe this is an extraordinarily promising time for scholars and students with an interdisciplinary training in the empirical and normative study of law for careers in the academy, social policy research, and public policy advocacy. Whether you are such a student, contemplating this field of study, or simply an interested reader, I encourage you to spend some time visiting this website where you can learn about our current students and faculty, recent courses and upcoming conferences, check out faculty Blogs and find out about current job openings and when our advanced graduate students will be on the teaching market. I especially urge you to learn more about our alumni, browsing their JSP dissertations and reading about their current activities. Nothing else reflects the unique qualities of our program as do our graduates and what they have accomplished with their degrees.
If what you learn here impels you to find out about how to go further, contact me or Ms. Margo Rodriguez, our graduate student affairs analyst.
Sincerely
