Collegium Institute announces “Sentencing: Trials in Literature,” as the Fall 2024 Legal Humanities Fellowship event series. We will examine depictions of (legal and moral) trials in literature spanning from antiquity to modernity. By exploring how archetypal figures–the righteous man, the philosopher, the lawman, the everyman, the outsider, and God Himself–are put on trial, we will analyze how different authors have understood the relationship between law and justice. We will consider the following questions: how can a trial act as a metaphor for existential struggle? What role does subjectivity play in the law? How can literature help us understand the relationship between individual morality and social harmony in the context of the legal system?
The Legal Humanities Fellowship invites a small group of advanced undergraduate and law student fellows to participate in six seminar-style discussion sessions per semester. The discussions will be facilitated by academics and professionals in law, history, and philosophy. The seminars seek to cultivate reflection on the relationship between law and the good life, exploring questions like: How can law — its substance and practice — help us to become more fully human?
Dates: Mondays, 12:00 pm to 1:15 pm.
September 9: Trial of the Righteous Man with Talya Fishman (The Book of Genesis and the Book of Job)
September 16: Trial of the Philosopher with Ralph Rosen (Plato’s Apology)
September 23: Trial of the Lawman with David Oakley (Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons)
September 30: Trial of the Everyman with Jean-Michel Rabaté (Franz Kafka’s The Trial)
October 7: Trial of God Himself with Stephanos Bibas (Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov)
October 14: Trial of the Outsider (Albert Camus’ The Stranger)
To apply for the Fall 2024 Legal Humanities Fellowship, complete the brief application below.
Priority deadline: August 26, 2024
Regular deadline: September 6, 2024
Please direct any questions to Quinn Shepherd (qshepherd@collegiuminstitute.org).