Tenure, Judicial Campaign Contributions, Cold War Civil Rights
In this issue of Emory Law Insights, we are sharing excerpts from three great books by Emory Law faculty. The publications explore a wide range of topics, including faculty tenure, judicial election campaigns, as well as the relationship between racism, international criticism, and social change in the U.S. during the Cold War. These are just three books of many important contributions from Emory Law faculty this year. For more, check out our scholarship news archives and faculty pages.
The reality of tenure and academic freedom
For those outside academia, the concept of “tenure” may bring to mind professors who are radical and independent in their teaching methods, yet are protected and forever secure in their positions. Emory Law Associate Professor Deepa Da Acevedo challenges this common assumption in her new book, The War on Tenure. In her excerpt, she explores the ongoing relationship between tenure and individual autonomy, as well as how tenure-track professors can exhaust themselves in their pursuit of pedagogical freedom. She writes: “The individual professor and the tenure’s effects on her incentives remain at the center of the debate. Most people are for or against tenure depending on whether they think it produces renegades or heroes.”
Campaign contributions and judicial interests
In their book Free to Judge: The Power of Campaign Money in Judicial Elections, Emory Law Vice Dean Joanna Shepherd and Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law Professor Michael S. Kang identify what they call a “crisis point in judicial elections,” the corrosive and influential effect of campaign contributions on judicial election campaigns. The co-authors examine comprehensive data over three decades of state supreme court decisions (1990s to 2010s) as well as the campaign contributions given to the elected judges deciding cases across the country. Free to Judge presents some of the most robust empirical evidence to date that campaign money biases judicial decision-making. Shepherd and Kang argue that contributors get what they want for their money—indebtedness from elected judges who are deciding most of the legal cases in our country. They also raise concerns about the practice of raising re-election funds and how contributors may influence their elected state judges.
Twenty-Five Years of “Cold War Civil Rights”
Mary Dudziak, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law, penned a book that has been so impactful over the last two decades that it is being re-released with a 25th anniversary edition. Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy, includes a rich recounting of the story of an Alabama handyman who was sentenced to death in 1958 for stealing less than two dollars in change. The handyman, Jimmy Wilson, was African American. News of his sentencing rippled across the globe, where journalists, international leaders, and the American public alike protested Wilson’s pending execution. Alabama Governor James Folsom responded to the outpouring of international attention by quickly granting clemency to Wilson.
While Wilson’s name may no longer be making headlines, his story exemplifies the complex and fragile interplay between racism, international criticism, and social change in Cold War America. As Dudziak described: “[T]he Cold War would frame and thereby limit the nation’s civil rights commitment. The primacy of anticommunism in postwar American politics and culture left a very narrow space for criticism of the status quo. By silencing certain voices and promoting a particular version of racial justice, the Cold War led to a narrowing of acceptable civil rights discourse.” Cold War Civil Rights continues to resonate in studies of American government, international relations, and the achievement of social justice. The 25th anniversary edition features a new and powerful preface by the author.
Read on for excerpts from these three great books!
We hope you enjoy this survey of recent Emory Law scholarship. To see more from our professors who ranked among the top 20 for scholarly impact, please visit our faculty scholarship page.