A Law and/in/as Literature Conference in Brazil, October 30 to November 1

From our colleague Jose Calvo Gonzalez at the University of Malaga, news of another extremely interesting conference, this one in Brazil. Here's a link to the call for papers and more information about the conference, which is devoted to law and literature, law as literature, and law in literature. The event,officially named the II COLÓQUIO INTERNACIONAL DE DIREITO E LITERATURA:  "A REPRESENTAÇÃO DO JUIZ E O IMAGINÁRIO SOCIAL,” takes place from October 30 through November 1 at the Auditório Central, Faculdade Meridional, Passo Fundo, RS, Brasil.

In Memoriam: Penelope Pether

We are saddened to report the passing of Penelope Pether, Professor of Law at Villanova University, and a former member of the Board of Governors of the Law and Humanities Institute. Professor Pether was a distinguished member of the legal academy, and a noted scholar in the areas of criminal law and constitutional law, as well as in law and literature.

Professor Pether received her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Sydney, and later her Ph.D. in English from the same university. In addition, she practiced as an attorney in Sydney, and then in the New South Wales Ombudsman's Office.

During her extensive academic career, Professor Pether taught at the Universities of Sydney and Wollongong, at Southern Illinois University Law School, at American University Law School, and finally at Villanova Law School. She was also a beloved teacher and mentor. Included in her extensive and influential bibliography are articles published in the Stanford Law Review, the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, the Washington & Lee Law Review, the Cardozo Law Review, the Sydney Law Review, Law & Critique, Law and Literature, Social Semiotics, and The Australian Feminist Law Journal. Her essays appear in collections published by such publishers as Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and Edinburgh University Press. Lexis recently published the second edition of her Criminal Law casebook. She was also an editor of the SSRN online journal Law and Literature and the journal Law and Literature, and served on the editorial boards of the Waikato Law Review, Social Semiotics, and Law and Critique.

Professor Pether was also active in many conferences and associations, and was a gracious and generous colleague who made new members of the academy feel welcome in what can be a challenging environment. She was with us for far too short a time, and we will miss her.

Villanova Law School has published a remembrance of Professor Pether, with more information about her life and legacy, here.

Law and Humanities Institute and Cardozo Law School Sponsor Conference On History of Blood Libel

Upcoming: a fall conference sponsored by the Law and Humanities Institute and the Program on Holocaust Human Rights Studies, Cardozo Law School. Here is the description of the program from the Cardozo website:

On Nov.14-15, the Program on Holocaust Human Rights Studies and the Law & Humanities Institute will sponsor a conference on the tragic history of the "Blood Libel", in which Jews have been accused across the millennia of killing Christian children to use their blood in the Passover ritual. Originating in England early in the second millennium, the libel spread eastward to Russia, and it is not unknown in the United States and Canada. One of the most infamous of these libels was the Mendel Beilis case in the waning days of Tsarist Russia, and it is the 100th anniversary of the near-miraculous acquittal of Beilis that occasionalizes this conference. The scholarly centerpiece of our discussions will be Hannah R. Johnson's influential recent book, BLOOD LIBEL, a complex history of the phenomenon, and Prof. Johnson of the U. of Pittsburgh will speak; the literary centerpiece will be Bernhard Malamud's fictional rendering of the Beilis case,THE FIXER, which will be discussed widely by various speakers. Panelists include the grandson of Beilis and attorney Jeremy Garber, who have a major bone to pick with the novel; Prof. Vivian Curran of the U. of Pittsburgh Law School; Prof. David Fraser of the U. of Nottingham (UK); Prof. Jeffrey Mehlman of Boston U.; Prof. Harriet Murav of the U. of Illinois; Prof. Sanford Levinson of U. Texas Law School; and Prof. Richard Weisberg of Cardozo.
For further details and to reserve for the symposium, contact Johanna Rubbert at johannac.rubbert@gmail.com