Law and Social Science Dissertation Fellowship and Mentoring Program

AbstractLaw and Social Science Dissertation Fellowship and Mentoring ProgramWe proposed a Law and Social Science Dissertation Fellowship and Mentoring Program（LSS Fellowship）to be funded by the National Science Foundation（NSF）and the American Bar Foundation（ABF）. LSS奖学金的NSF部分将由法律和社会协会（LSA）与ABF和选定研究员所在大学的社会科学系合作管理。 NSF将提供每个研究员的一部分津贴。 LSA将协调和领导一项涉及研究员内政部的培训计划，重点关注个人指导和集体网络。 ABF将提供每个研究员的一部分津贴，一个当地的教师导师，以及住宅支持，包括办公空间，秘书支持和住宅学术环境。 该方案有两个广泛的目标。第一，加强对法律和不平等问题进行严格的社会科学研究的能力。鉴于法律既能改善不平等现象，又能使不平等现象长期存在，法律和社会科学领域有必要增加研究的数量和质量，研究不平等现象是如何通过法律的机构得到调解的;社会不平等现象对法律的结果的影响;广义的各种形式的不平等现象如何与法律的规则的制定、决策和组织的运作相互作用;以及法律如何为不同社会群体的成员创造不同的期望和体验。第二个主要目标是为发展法律和社会科学领域提供一个体制基础设施，加强激励措施，鼓励在学科部门学习法律的年轻学者了解法律和社会科学领域的跨学科知识，与之互动，并为之作出贡献。 通过让青年学者接触有助于维持和发展法律和社会科学领域的两个主要机构-法律和社会协会以及美国律师基金会，将鼓励那些可能仍然局限于研究本学科内非法律专题的学者从社会科学角度从事法律研究。通过结合学术，专业和网络机会，该计划承诺：通过促进新兴学者的发展来增加法律和不平等子领域的活力;通过培养新学者之间的知识和专业联系来加强法律和社会科学整体领域;并培养一批研究人员，他们将成为未来法律和不平等学生的榜样和导师。 由于法律和不平等的研究往往是由有色人种学者承担，该计划也可能有助于减轻种族和少数民族在法律和社会科学领域的代表性不足。我们要求在最初的五年期间的资金，以支持一系列为期两年的奖学金，共八名研究生研究员。在赠款的第一年，该计划将授予两个奖学金;在第二，第三和第四年，该计划将授予两个新的奖学金，在5年内至少有8名LSS研究员。 我们还将对该计划进行年度评估，并且在资助的第四年年初，一个独立的团队将进行评估，这对于寻求在最初的五年期之后继续该计划（如果有必要）应该是有用的。

AbstractLaw and Social Science Dissertation Fellowship and Mentoring ProgramWe propose a Law and Social Science Dissertation Fellowship and Mentoring Program (LSS Fellowship) to be funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the American Bar Foundation (ABF). The NSF portion of the LSS Fellowship will be administered by the Law and Society Association (LSA), in partnership with ABF and the respective social science departments at the universities of selected fellows. NSF would provide a portion of each fellow's stipend. LSA would coordinate and lead a training program involving the fellow's home department with a dual focus on individual mentoring and collective networking. ABF would provide a portion of each fellow's stipend, a local faculty mentor, as well as residential support including office space, secretarial support and a residential academic environment. The program has two broad objectives. The first is to enhance the capacity for rigorous social scientific research on law and inequality. Given law's capacity both to ameliorate and to perpetuate inequality, there is a need for the law and social science field to increase the quantity and quality of research on the ways in which inequality is mediated through legal institutions; the impact of social inequality on legal outcomes; how various forms of inequality, broadly defined, interact with the creation of legal rules, decision making, and the operation of organizations; and how law may create differential expectations and experiences for members of different social groups. The second primary objective is to provide an institutional infrastructure for developing the field of law and social science by enhancing the incentives for young scholars studying law in disciplinary departments to learn about, interact with, and contribute to the interdisciplinary law and social science field. By exposing young scholars to two of the primary institutions that contribute to the sustenance and development of the law and social science field-- the Law and Society Association and the American Bar Foundation-- scholars who might otherwise remain limited to non-legal topics within their own disciplines will be encouraged to pursue research on law from a social scientific perspective. Through combining academic, professional, and networking opportunities, the program promises to: increase the vitality of the subfield of law and inequality by fostering the development of emerging scholars; strengthen law and social science overall by nurturing intellectual and professional connections among scholars new to the field; and nurture a cohort of researchers who will become role models and mentors for future students of law and inequality. Because the study of law and inequality often is undertaken by scholars of color, the program may also help to alleviate the underrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities in the field of law and social science.We request funds for an initial five-year period to support a sequence of two-year fellowships for a total of eight graduate student fellows. In the first year of the grant, the program will award two fellowships; during the second, third, and fourth years, the program will award two new fellowships, for a minimum of eight LSS fellows over a 5 year period. We also will conduct annual evaluations of the program, and, early in the fourth year of funding, an independent team will undertake an evaluation that should be useful in seeking to continue the program beyond the initial five-year period (if warranted).