Request for Papers and Presentations: Christian Legal Thought from the Margins on January 21-22, 2027, at Emory University School of Law:
Emory University’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion and Pepperdine Caruso School of Law’s Nootbaar Institute on Law, Religion, and Ethics are pleased to invite legal scholars to participate in the second “Christian Legal Thought from the Margins” scholarly workshop, to take place from January 21–22, 2027 at Emory Law School in Atlanta, Georgia. The workshop will feature presentations that illustrate and explore the influence of the Christian faith on legal scholarship “from the margins.”
A focus on work generated “from the margins” encompasses two types of scholarship. First, it includes scholarship that seeks to promote justice and equality on behalf of marginalized people and communities, those whom Scripture might refer to as the “poor and oppressed” (Psalm 82:3–4) or the “least of these” (Matthew 25:40, 45). Second, it refers to fields or perspectives that tend to be marginalized within the dominant political and legal discourse of the American church and are thereby underdeveloped or underexplored from a Christian legal perspective. The workshop thus seeks to create a space and build a community in which participants explore what it means to allow Christianity to inform, inspire, and intervene in legal scholarship. This gathering builds upon an initial workshop at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law in November 2025 organized by Professors Chris Hampson (University of Florida College of Law), Alvin Velazquez (Indiana Maurer School of Law), and Jennifer Lee Koh (Pepperdine Caruso Law).
The workshop will be organized primarily around scholarly works-in-progress, including early stage “incubator” sessions. Workshop participants should be prepared to discuss how the paper fits within the theme of the conference, although papers do not need to be written from a Christian perspective or be a “law and religion” paper.
The deadline for submission is October 1, 2026. Participants should expect to circulate drafts no later than two weeks prior to the workshop. Limited travel funds may be available. Please send any questions to any members of the planning committee (Silas Allard, Whittney Barth, Chris Hampson, Jennifer Koh, and Alvin Velazquez).
