The conference was held in the courtroom

Scenes from the dramatic performance

Scenes from the dramatic performance

Professor Martha C. Nussbaum and Jajah Wu, '10

Professor Douglas Baird

Professor Martha C. Nussbaum

Nicola Lacey

Professors Martha C. Nussbaum and Alison LaCroix

Author Sara Paretsky

Jajah Wu, '10

Professor Martha C. Nussbaum

Assistant Professors Rosalind Dixon and Alison LaCroix

Jajah Wu, '10, and Assistant Professor Daniel Abebe

Professors Rosalind Dixon, Douglas Baird, Daniel Abebe, and Alison LaCroix

Assistant Professors Daniel Abebe and Alison LaCroix

Conference participants post-performance

Organized by Martha Nussbaum, Alison LaCroix, and Jane Dailey, this conference was the second in a series of law and literature conferences, the first of which was the Shakespeare conference held in the spring of 2009. 

This conference focused on the interplay between law and gender in English literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  It sought to explore, through a legal lens, the literary themes generated by gender and gender roles from Henry Fielding to George Bernard Shaw. The conference imbued a broader understanding of the legal and social philosophies that changed and were changed by the respective roles of women and men in England, encouraging a deeper and more complex appreciation in the fields of both literature and the law. Distinguished writer Sara Paretsky, author of the V.I. Warshawski detective novels, was a guest speaker. 

Following the tradition set by the first law and literature conference, faculty and student actors performed dramatic scenes from English plays of the era. The conference was co-sponsored by the Center for Gender Studies.