Legal Studies Research Methods (227-0-20)
Instructors
Jesse Yeh
620 Lincoln Street
Jesse Yeh (he /they)
I am an Assistant Professor of Instruction at the Center for Legal Studies. I am a political sociologist with a focus on race and immigration, law and crime, gender and sexuality, and movements and politics. My current book project Crime Is Other People: Punitive Consciousness and the Racial Politics of Law-and-Order explores how liberal and conservative activists make sense of law-and-order politics. I teach courses on research methods, immigration, and race, law, and politics.
Meeting Info
Locy Hall 301: Mon, Wed 12:30PM - 1:50PM
Overview of class
What constitutes evidence? How is it created? What makes it relevant and reliable? The interdisciplinary field of legal studies has a diverse range of answers to these questions. In this class, we will focus on jurisprudence and legal reasoning, qualitative and quantitative social science methods, and historical and textual analysis. Through engaging with these interdisciplinary methods, we will develop your ability to both productively evaluate scholarly research on law and legal processes, as well as conduct your own research on legal institutions. This course is intended to build your skills to conduct your own original research for the legal studies thesis (Legal Studies 398); as such, it is recommended for students to take this course in their junior or sophomore years.
Prerequisite: LEGAL_ST 206/SOCIOL 206.
Taught with LEGAL_ST 207; may not receive credit for both courses.
Learning Objectives
The primary objectives for this class are for you to develop your ability to:
1) pose your own empirical questions about law and the social world;
2) conceptualize appropriate strategies to answer these questions;
3) evaluate the production and interpretation of empirical evidence in scholarly research;
4) utilize and integrate primary and secondary evidence into your argumentation;
5) assess how courts and other legal institutions deploys social science evidence.
Teaching Method
Seminar discussion with some lecture.
Evaluation Method
Active participation, short assignments, and final paper.
Class Materials (Required)
All materials for this course will be made available on Canvas - no purchase necessary.
Class Notes
First Year students interested in the course must obtain instructor permission.
Class Attributes
Advanced Expression
Social and Behavioral Science Foundational Discipl
Social & Behavioral Sciences Distro Area
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: Reserved for Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors from every undergraduate school only. First year students need permission to enroll into the course.