American Bar Foundation
@abfresearch.bsky.social
The American Bar Foundation (ABF) is a sociolegal research institute. We conduct rigorous, empirical research that explores the intersection of law and society—creating insights that underpin today’s most pressing issues.
On Wednesday, 11/12, @ucirvinelaw.bsky.social Prof. Shauhin Talesh will lead the ABF Speaker Series on 'Insuring Cyberinsecurity: Insurance Companies as Symbolic Regulators.'
November 12 at 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm CST
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
November 12 at 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm CST
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
Speaker Series: Shauhin Talesh - ABF
Despite the massive costs associated with data breaches, ransomware, viruses, and cyberattacks, most organizations remain thoroughly unprepared to safeguard consumer data. Over the past two decades…
www.americanbarfoundation.org
November 10, 2025 at 10:10 PM
On Wednesday, 11/12, @ucirvinelaw.bsky.social Prof. Shauhin Talesh will lead the ABF Speaker Series on 'Insuring Cyberinsecurity: Insurance Companies as Symbolic Regulators.'
November 12 at 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm CST
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
November 12 at 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm CST
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
🚨In a new @entitledpodcast.bsky.social, ABF Research Prof. @tomginsburg.bsky.social discusses how sanctions are being used and abused by the Trump administration, and how other UN members are responding to the sanctioning of their colleagues for speaking out.
NEW: Silencing the Special Procedures: Sanctions and the UN Human Rights System
In this episode, we discuss how sanctions are being used and abused by the Trump administration and how UN experts are responding.
Listen now: open.spotify.com/episode/3OTH...
In this episode, we discuss how sanctions are being used and abused by the Trump administration and how UN experts are responding.
Listen now: open.spotify.com/episode/3OTH...
Silencing the Special Procedures: Sanctions and the UN Human Rights System
open.spotify.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:44 PM
🚨In a new @entitledpodcast.bsky.social, ABF Research Prof. @tomginsburg.bsky.social discusses how sanctions are being used and abused by the Trump administration, and how other UN members are responding to the sanctioning of their colleagues for speaking out.
The American Bar Foundation (ABF) is seeking its next Executive Director. Join one of the world’s leading institutes for the empirical and interdisciplinary study of law in advancing justice and shaping the future of sociolegal research.
📍 Chicago, IL
Learn More: www.imsearch.com/open-searche...
📍 Chicago, IL
Learn More: www.imsearch.com/open-searche...
Executive Director | Isaacson, Miller
www.imsearch.com
October 28, 2025 at 8:26 PM
The American Bar Foundation (ABF) is seeking its next Executive Director. Join one of the world’s leading institutes for the empirical and interdisciplinary study of law in advancing justice and shaping the future of sociolegal research.
📍 Chicago, IL
Learn More: www.imsearch.com/open-searche...
📍 Chicago, IL
Learn More: www.imsearch.com/open-searche...
Reposted by American Bar Foundation
🚨If you are an early-career scholar who researches civil justice topics -- please consider applying to join our next cohort! Participants join an awesome community of A2J scholars (& receive a research stipend!).
Applications due November 24 (bit.ly/abfecw)
@abfresearch.bsky.social
Applications due November 24 (bit.ly/abfecw)
@abfresearch.bsky.social
ABF Access to Justice Research Initiative Early-Career Workshop at American Bar Foundation
ABF Access to Justice Research Initiative Early-Career Workshop
Deadline: Monday, November 24, 2025
About the ABF Access to Justice Research Initiative
The American Bar Foundation’s Access to Justice ...
bit.ly
October 27, 2025 at 2:04 PM
🚨If you are an early-career scholar who researches civil justice topics -- please consider applying to join our next cohort! Participants join an awesome community of A2J scholars (& receive a research stipend!).
Applications due November 24 (bit.ly/abfecw)
@abfresearch.bsky.social
Applications due November 24 (bit.ly/abfecw)
@abfresearch.bsky.social
Please join us today at 1:00 pm CT / 2:00pm ET for our National Fellows Webinar, "The Legal Profession and the Rule of Law in Asia," featuring Terry Halliday, Jothie Rajah, Sital Kalantry and moderated by David K.Y. Tang.
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/nation...
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/nation...
National Fellows Webinar - ABF
This event is free to attend. Open to Fellows and nominees only. 11:00am PT / 12:00pm MT / 1:00pm CT / 2:00pm ET “The Legal Profession and the Rule of Law in Asia” Challenges to the rule of law in the...
www.americanbarfoundation.org
October 23, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Please join us today at 1:00 pm CT / 2:00pm ET for our National Fellows Webinar, "The Legal Profession and the Rule of Law in Asia," featuring Terry Halliday, Jothie Rajah, Sital Kalantry and moderated by David K.Y. Tang.
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/nation...
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/nation...
Tomorrow, 10/22, ABF Speaker Series will be led by ABF/AccessLex Institute Postdoctoral Fellow in Legal and Higher Education, Grigory Gorbun. Gorbun will argue that moot courts shift the grounds of law’s authority away from state sovereignty and toward a transnational legal professional community.
Speaker Series: Grigory Gorbun - ABF
www.americanbarfoundation.org
October 21, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Tomorrow, 10/22, ABF Speaker Series will be led by ABF/AccessLex Institute Postdoctoral Fellow in Legal and Higher Education, Grigory Gorbun. Gorbun will argue that moot courts shift the grounds of law’s authority away from state sovereignty and toward a transnational legal professional community.
Alex Heba, a former ABF Doctoral Fellow, recently published, "Fuzzy Boundaries: A Mechanism for Group Accumulation of Advantage," which examines the evaluation of the "good moral character" qualification of lawyers’ licensing laws.
Learn more:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Learn more:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Fuzzy Boundaries: A Mechanism for Group Accumulation of Advantage - Heba Alex, 2025
This article describes a strategic mechanism, fuzzy boundaries, that groups use to accumulate advantage. In contrast to the dominant view that rigid, well-defin...
journals.sagepub.com
October 20, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Alex Heba, a former ABF Doctoral Fellow, recently published, "Fuzzy Boundaries: A Mechanism for Group Accumulation of Advantage," which examines the evaluation of the "good moral character" qualification of lawyers’ licensing laws.
Learn more:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Learn more:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Tuesday, October 21, 2025, Northwestern's 36th Annual Leopold Lecture will be moderated by ABF Research Prof. @lbthatsme.bsky.social—featuring @npr.org's Award-Winning Legal Affairs Correspondent and author @ninatotenberg.bsky.social
🎟️ Get tickets:
weinberg.northwestern.edu/about/events...
🎟️ Get tickets:
weinberg.northwestern.edu/about/events...
36th Annual Leopold Lecture: Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences - Northwestern University
weinberg.northwestern.edu
October 16, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Tuesday, October 21, 2025, Northwestern's 36th Annual Leopold Lecture will be moderated by ABF Research Prof. @lbthatsme.bsky.social—featuring @npr.org's Award-Winning Legal Affairs Correspondent and author @ninatotenberg.bsky.social
🎟️ Get tickets:
weinberg.northwestern.edu/about/events...
🎟️ Get tickets:
weinberg.northwestern.edu/about/events...
Tomorrow, 10/15, ABF Speaker Series will be led by ABF/Northwestern Doctoral Fellow in Law and Social Science, Kris Rosentel, and ABF/UChicago Doctoral Fellow in Law and Social Science, @annafox.bsky.social.
Topics on policing, inequality, and more.
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
Topics on policing, inequality, and more.
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
Speaker Series: Kris Rosentel, Anna Fox - ABF
Kris Rosentel Covalent Logics: Policing, Family Values, and the Reproduction of Inequality by Anna Fox How do organizations justify their role in reproducing inequality when established institutional…
www.americanbarfoundation.org
October 14, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Tomorrow, 10/15, ABF Speaker Series will be led by ABF/Northwestern Doctoral Fellow in Law and Social Science, Kris Rosentel, and ABF/UChicago Doctoral Fellow in Law and Social Science, @annafox.bsky.social.
Topics on policing, inequality, and more.
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
Topics on policing, inequality, and more.
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
Reposted by American Bar Foundation
🚀 Day 2 of the @opengovpartnership.org Global Summit 🚀
Today, we learned about:
🇸🇱 The national justice efforts in Sierra Leone.
💰 #JusticeActionCoalition’s work on the economic case for #PeopleCenteredJustice and people-centered justice data, led by @oecd-ocde.bsky.social.
Today, we learned about:
🇸🇱 The national justice efforts in Sierra Leone.
💰 #JusticeActionCoalition’s work on the economic case for #PeopleCenteredJustice and people-centered justice data, led by @oecd-ocde.bsky.social.
October 9, 2025 at 4:12 PM
🚀 Day 2 of the @opengovpartnership.org Global Summit 🚀
Today, we learned about:
🇸🇱 The national justice efforts in Sierra Leone.
💰 #JusticeActionCoalition’s work on the economic case for #PeopleCenteredJustice and people-centered justice data, led by @oecd-ocde.bsky.social.
Today, we learned about:
🇸🇱 The national justice efforts in Sierra Leone.
💰 #JusticeActionCoalition’s work on the economic case for #PeopleCenteredJustice and people-centered justice data, led by @oecd-ocde.bsky.social.
This Wed., 10/8, ABF Speaker Series will be led by ABF/AccessLex Institute Postdoctoral Fellow in Legal and Higher Education, Ellie Frazier—on, "Pathways to Justice Work: Nonlawyer Educational Choices, Identities, and Professionalization in the U.S."
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
Speaker Series: Ellie Frazier - ABF
Over the past three decades, programs training nonlawyers, such as limited licensed practitioners (LLPs) and community justice workers (CJWs), have arisen in the United State in response to access to…
www.americanbarfoundation.org
October 6, 2025 at 9:59 PM
This Wed., 10/8, ABF Speaker Series will be led by ABF/AccessLex Institute Postdoctoral Fellow in Legal and Higher Education, Ellie Frazier—on, "Pathways to Justice Work: Nonlawyer Educational Choices, Identities, and Professionalization in the U.S."
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for the 2026 cohort of Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows!
Open to current college sophomores and juniors, applications will be open until January 16, 2026.
Learn more!
🔗: american-bar-foundation.breezy.hr/p/cf1b8602f9...
Open to current college sophomores and juniors, applications will be open until January 16, 2026.
Learn more!
🔗: american-bar-foundation.breezy.hr/p/cf1b8602f9...
2026 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship at American Bar Foundation
The Opportunity The American Bar Foundation (ABF) is accepting applications for the 2026 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), an eight-week program that offers hands-on experience and expo...
american-bar-foundation.breezy.hr
October 3, 2025 at 7:58 PM
We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for the 2026 cohort of Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows!
Open to current college sophomores and juniors, applications will be open until January 16, 2026.
Learn more!
🔗: american-bar-foundation.breezy.hr/p/cf1b8602f9...
Open to current college sophomores and juniors, applications will be open until January 16, 2026.
Learn more!
🔗: american-bar-foundation.breezy.hr/p/cf1b8602f9...
On Law Next: "Justice Workers — Reimagining Access to Justice as Democracy Work"
The ABF's Rebecca L. Sandefur & Matthew Burnett argue that the justice gap is a "crisis of democracy," and that trained community justice workers may hold the solution.
🎙️ Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eofZ...
The ABF's Rebecca L. Sandefur & Matthew Burnett argue that the justice gap is a "crisis of democracy," and that trained community justice workers may hold the solution.
🎙️ Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eofZ...
Justice Workers: Access to Justice as Democracy Work, with Rebecca Sandefur and Matthew Burnett
YouTube video by LawNext
www.youtube.com
September 29, 2025 at 9:33 PM
On Law Next: "Justice Workers — Reimagining Access to Justice as Democracy Work"
The ABF's Rebecca L. Sandefur & Matthew Burnett argue that the justice gap is a "crisis of democracy," and that trained community justice workers may hold the solution.
🎙️ Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eofZ...
The ABF's Rebecca L. Sandefur & Matthew Burnett argue that the justice gap is a "crisis of democracy," and that trained community justice workers may hold the solution.
🎙️ Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eofZ...
Next Wed., 10/1, ABF Speaker Series will be led by ABF/LSA Doctoral Fellow in Law & Inequality Christopher Robertson, and ABF/AccessLex Institute Doctoral Fellow in Legal & Higher Education Jane Y. Jeong.
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
Speaker Series: Christopher Robertson & Jane Y. Jeong - ABF
Christopher Robertson At the Borders of Belonging: Asian American Immigrant Families, Disability, and the Governance of Conditional Futures by Jane Y. Jeong Asian American immigrant students with…
www.americanbarfoundation.org
September 26, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Next Wed., 10/1, ABF Speaker Series will be led by ABF/LSA Doctoral Fellow in Law & Inequality Christopher Robertson, and ABF/AccessLex Institute Doctoral Fellow in Legal & Higher Education Jane Y. Jeong.
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, ABF Research Prof. and @uchicagolaw.bsky.social's @tomginsburg.bsky.social urges universities to do more than stay neutral — they must actively promote First Amendment principles and ideological diversity.
Read more from: @usatoday.com
🔗:
Read more from: @usatoday.com
🔗:
Charlie Kirk's death renews focus on the balance between free speech and safety
Free speech experts told USA TODAY that colleges and universities can't be dissuaded from hosting controversial speakers in light of Kirk's murder.
www.usatoday.com
September 25, 2025 at 9:21 PM
In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, ABF Research Prof. and @uchicagolaw.bsky.social's @tomginsburg.bsky.social urges universities to do more than stay neutral — they must actively promote First Amendment principles and ideological diversity.
Read more from: @usatoday.com
🔗:
Read more from: @usatoday.com
🔗:
Next Wed., 9/24, ABF Speaker Series will be led by @gabrielwinant.bsky.social, Associate Professor of History at the University of Chicago. Winant will discuss the "brittleness of the institutions of the welfare state constructed during the New Deal."
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
Speaker Series: Gabriel Winant - ABF
This presentation opens a new angle of inquiry on the brittleness of the institutions of the welfare state constructed during the New Deal. Whereas the traditional account of those institutions holds…
www.americanbarfoundation.org
September 19, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Next Wed., 9/24, ABF Speaker Series will be led by @gabrielwinant.bsky.social, Associate Professor of History at the University of Chicago. Winant will discuss the "brittleness of the institutions of the welfare state constructed during the New Deal."
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
🔗: www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
Constitution Day! Join the Illinois Conference of the American Association of University Professors, @projectcensored.bsky.social, and the Park Center for Independent Media for a free webinar on academic freedom and the higher ed. crisis — Today from 3-4pm CT.
🔗: www.facebook.com/events/19165...
🔗: www.facebook.com/events/19165...
Higher Education in Crisis: Academic Freedom and the Constitution
Event by Illinois AAUP on Wednesday, September 17 2025
www.facebook.com
September 17, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Constitution Day! Join the Illinois Conference of the American Association of University Professors, @projectcensored.bsky.social, and the Park Center for Independent Media for a free webinar on academic freedom and the higher ed. crisis — Today from 3-4pm CT.
🔗: www.facebook.com/events/19165...
🔗: www.facebook.com/events/19165...
Tomorrow, 9/16, our ABF Speaker Series is led by Prof. of Sociology and Co-Dir. of the Appalachian Justice Research Center @profmichellebrown.bsky.social. Brown will discuss tribal sovereignty amidst carceral expansion and raises key questions about sovereignty granted by the settler state.
🔗:
🔗:
Speaker Series: Michelle Brown - ABF
In the United States, the formation and ongoing articulation of tribal sovereignty has been inseparable from the logics and institutions of the settler colonial carceral state.
www.americanbarfoundation.org
September 16, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Tomorrow, 9/16, our ABF Speaker Series is led by Prof. of Sociology and Co-Dir. of the Appalachian Justice Research Center @profmichellebrown.bsky.social. Brown will discuss tribal sovereignty amidst carceral expansion and raises key questions about sovereignty granted by the settler state.
🔗:
🔗:
ABF Faculty Fellow Rebecca Sandefur and Director of Research and Programs Matthew Burnett discuss resolutions made by the Conference of Chief Justices, Conference of State Court Administrators, and ABA––for studying and implementing community justice worker programs.
www.law360.com/articles/238...
www.law360.com/articles/238...
3 Questions To Guide Research On Justice Worker Movement - Law360
As legal profession leaders formally encourage courts to study nonlawyer justice worker programs as a tool to address the access to justice crisis, we should begin with asking what we know, what we ne...
www.law360.com
September 10, 2025 at 9:02 PM
ABF Faculty Fellow Rebecca Sandefur and Director of Research and Programs Matthew Burnett discuss resolutions made by the Conference of Chief Justices, Conference of State Court Administrators, and ABA––for studying and implementing community justice worker programs.
www.law360.com/articles/238...
www.law360.com/articles/238...
This Wed., 9/16, the ABF Speaker Series returns with Zhandarka Kurti, Assistant Prof. of Criminal Justice and Criminology at @loyolachicago.bsky.social and Jarrod Shanahan, Associate Prof. of Criminal Justice at Governors State University.
🔗 www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
🔗 www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
Speaker Series: Zhandarka Kurti and Jarrod Shanahan - ABF
In 2019, after unyielding pressure from activists, New York City seemed poised to close the detested Rikers Island penal colony. The local press dutifully reported that the end of Rikers was imminent…
www.americanbarfoundation.org
September 8, 2025 at 9:16 PM
This Wed., 9/16, the ABF Speaker Series returns with Zhandarka Kurti, Assistant Prof. of Criminal Justice and Criminology at @loyolachicago.bsky.social and Jarrod Shanahan, Associate Prof. of Criminal Justice at Governors State University.
🔗 www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
🔗 www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/speake...
The ABF welcomes seven Visiting Scholars to our 2025–26 cohort: Portia Jin Xiong, Rashmee Singh, William Darwall, Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Joachim Savelsberg, Kasey Henricks, and Katheryn Birks Harvey.
www.americanbarfoundation.org/the-abf-anno...
www.americanbarfoundation.org/the-abf-anno...
The ABF Announces 2025-26 Visiting Scholars - ABF
The American Bar Foundation is pleased to welcome seven Visiting Scholars to the ABF research community.
www.americanbarfoundation.org
September 4, 2025 at 9:28 PM
The ABF welcomes seven Visiting Scholars to our 2025–26 cohort: Portia Jin Xiong, Rashmee Singh, William Darwall, Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Joachim Savelsberg, Kasey Henricks, and Katheryn Birks Harvey.
www.americanbarfoundation.org/the-abf-anno...
www.americanbarfoundation.org/the-abf-anno...
The ABF welcomes @swethaa.bsky.social as the 2025–26 William H. Neukom Fellows Research Chair in Diversity and Law. Ballakrishnen previously served as an AccessLex Visiting Scholar on Legal Education at the ABF, from 2017 to 2018.
Learn more:
www.americanbarfoundation.org/the-abf-welc...
Learn more:
www.americanbarfoundation.org/the-abf-welc...
The ABF Welcomes John M. Eason as the 2024-25 Neukom Research Chair - ABF
Eason’s research interests challenge existing models and develop new theories of community, health, race, punishment, and rural/urban processes.
www.americanbarfoundation.org
September 2, 2025 at 7:17 PM
The ABF welcomes @swethaa.bsky.social as the 2025–26 William H. Neukom Fellows Research Chair in Diversity and Law. Ballakrishnen previously served as an AccessLex Visiting Scholar on Legal Education at the ABF, from 2017 to 2018.
Learn more:
www.americanbarfoundation.org/the-abf-welc...
Learn more:
www.americanbarfoundation.org/the-abf-welc...
“Law, Anthropology, and Their Languages,” a new article by ABF Research Prof. Elizabeth Mertz and Faculty Fellow Justin Richland, uses linguistic anthropology and outsider scholarship to explore the discourses of law and anthropology.
Read more:
www.americanbarfoundation.org/wp-content/u...
Read more:
www.americanbarfoundation.org/wp-content/u...
www.americanbarfoundation.org
August 29, 2025 at 3:54 PM
“Law, Anthropology, and Their Languages,” a new article by ABF Research Prof. Elizabeth Mertz and Faculty Fellow Justin Richland, uses linguistic anthropology and outsider scholarship to explore the discourses of law and anthropology.
Read more:
www.americanbarfoundation.org/wp-content/u...
Read more:
www.americanbarfoundation.org/wp-content/u...
Check out this week’s episode of The Lawyerist Podcast, in which host Zack Glaser speaks with ABF Faculty Fellow Rebecca L. Sandefur and Dir. of Research and Programs Matthew Burnett about their research on community justice workers.
Watch here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7siI...
Watch here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7siI...
Community-Based Legal Solutions for Everyday Problems, with Rebecca Sandefur & Matthew Burnett
YouTube video by Lawyerist.com
www.youtube.com
August 22, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Check out this week’s episode of The Lawyerist Podcast, in which host Zack Glaser speaks with ABF Faculty Fellow Rebecca L. Sandefur and Dir. of Research and Programs Matthew Burnett about their research on community justice workers.
Watch here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7siI...
Watch here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7siI...
The ABF announces the 2025-26 doctoral and postdoctoral fellows. The ABF’s incoming doc fellows are Anna Fox, Jane Y. Jeong, Christopher E. Robertson, and Kris Rosentel.
The ABF’s postdoc fellows are Ellie Frazier and Grigory Gorbun.
Learn more:
www.americanbarfoundation.org/the-american...
The ABF’s postdoc fellows are Ellie Frazier and Grigory Gorbun.
Learn more:
www.americanbarfoundation.org/the-american...
ABF Announces 2025 Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellows - ABF
The ABF has awarded doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships to six outstanding scholars for their significant research proposals in law and social science.
www.americanbarfoundation.org
August 21, 2025 at 1:27 PM
The ABF announces the 2025-26 doctoral and postdoctoral fellows. The ABF’s incoming doc fellows are Anna Fox, Jane Y. Jeong, Christopher E. Robertson, and Kris Rosentel.
The ABF’s postdoc fellows are Ellie Frazier and Grigory Gorbun.
Learn more:
www.americanbarfoundation.org/the-american...
The ABF’s postdoc fellows are Ellie Frazier and Grigory Gorbun.
Learn more:
www.americanbarfoundation.org/the-american...