Elizabeth Mertz
Elizabeth Mertz is a legal anthropologist who examines legal language in the United States, with a special focus on law school education. She studies law schools as sites for training incipient lawyers in the language of law, and law professors as teachers and translators of that language. Her research also examines the challenges involved in translating between law and social science, particularly in the domain of family law. In addition to her position at the ABF, she is on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin Law School. She has published articles in numerous journals and edited collections; her recent book entitled The Language of Law School: Learning to “Think Like a Lawyer” was published by Oxford University Press. That study has drawn national attention from scholars interested in reforming the current system of legal education in the U.S.
As a law student, Professor Mertz graduated first in her class, and subsequently clerked for Judge Richard D. Cudahy, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Before attending law school, she earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Duke University.
In recognition of her work at the intersection of law and social science, Professor Mertz was elected a Fellow of the American Anthropological Association, as well as Treasurer of the Law & Society Association. She served for many years as Editor of Law & Social Inquiry, and as Editor of the Political and Legal Anthropology Review. Her writings on family violence and law, legal translations, and other topics have appeared in such publications as the Harvard Law Review, Law & Society Review, and the Annual Review of Anthropology. She has been a Fellow at the Law & Public Affairs Program at Princeton University and has also been a Visiting Professor in Princeton's Anthropology Department. She has a joint appointment at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she is the John & Rylla Bosshard Professor of Law Emerita.
Address: American Bar Foundation
750 N. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, IL 60610
As a law student, Professor Mertz graduated first in her class, and subsequently clerked for Judge Richard D. Cudahy, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Before attending law school, she earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Duke University.
In recognition of her work at the intersection of law and social science, Professor Mertz was elected a Fellow of the American Anthropological Association, as well as Treasurer of the Law & Society Association. She served for many years as Editor of Law & Social Inquiry, and as Editor of the Political and Legal Anthropology Review. Her writings on family violence and law, legal translations, and other topics have appeared in such publications as the Harvard Law Review, Law & Society Review, and the Annual Review of Anthropology. She has been a Fellow at the Law & Public Affairs Program at Princeton University and has also been a Visiting Professor in Princeton's Anthropology Department. She has a joint appointment at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she is the John & Rylla Bosshard Professor of Law Emerita.
Address: American Bar Foundation
750 N. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, IL 60610
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The book is divided into three sections that show the theoretical rationale and empirical consequences of cross-disciplinary research into semiotic processes. Part I provides a comprehensive theoretical foundation, with analysis and exegesis of work on semiotic mediation by theorists such as Peirce, Vygotsky, Bakhtin, Whorf, Saussure, and Frege. Part II presents empirical case studies that range across the fields of developmental psychology, cultural anthropology, sociolinguistics, and history of religion. Linking together these diverse data bases and research methodologies are crosscutting concerns with four dimensions of semiotic mediation. The third part is a section comprised of commentaries on the organization and themes of metasemiotic representation. The concluding chapter sketches the philosophical history of the notion of semiotic mediation and then synthesizes the volume's empirical studies in terms of directions for future research.
Anthropologists, psycholinguists, psychosociologists, and linguistics experts will find the book invaluable.
Using grounded ethnographic detail to explore the challenges to the anthropological imagination that are posed by modern uncertainties, the contributors confront the ambiguities and paradoxes that exist across the spectrum of human cultures and geographies. The collection is framed by introductory and concluding chapters that highlight different dimensions of the book’s interrelated themes—agency and ethnographic reflexivity, identity and ethics, and the inseparability of political economy and interpretivism.
Ethnography in Unstable Places will interest students and specialists in social anthropology, sociology, political science, international relations, and cultural studies.
Contributors. Eve Darian-Smith, Howard J. De Nike, Elizabeth Faier, James M. Freeman, Robert T. Gordon, Carol J. Greenhouse, Nguyen Dinh Huu, Carroll McC. Lewin, Elizabeth Mertz, Philip C. Parnell, Nancy Ries, Judy Rosenthal, Kay B. Warren, Stacia E. Zabusky