OHIO Giving Day

Your gift to the Center for Law, Justice & Culture (CLJC) at Ohio University provides support for an interdisciplinary academic community dedicated to advancing scholarship and teaching by integrating programs and uniting faculty and students who share a common interest in law's constitutive and formative role in cultural, political, and social life. For students, the center provides opportunities to study law and justice from a liberal arts perspective, bringing together interdisciplinary viewpoints from anthropology, criminology, political science, sociology, and other departments across the social sciences and humanities.

The CLJC helps students find opportunities to pursue their research interests and present their findings and connects them with the Athens-area legal community.

During summer 2020, the center ran its first virtual Summer Law & Trial Institute, directed by Larry Hayman. In the past years, the institute has brought high school students to live on the Athens campus to learn about law and justice topics and to explore educational and career opportunities related to law, engage in experiential learning, and develop skills necessary for college success. More than two dozen OHIO alumni and attorneys and judges participate in the program. This year the institute went completely virtual due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Summer Law and Trial Institute laid the foundation for my entire experience at Ohio University. For me, it acted as a jumping off point because through SLTI I was introduced to organizations that I could join, attorneys I could connect with, and ways I could prepare to be an excellent law school candidate. SLTI gave me the confidence to not only join [OHIO] organizations, but to strive to lead them. I learned how to collaborate, communicate, and organize teams during SLTI, and that is now what I do as President of Mock Trial, Associate Director of Students Defending Students, and as a Student Trustee. SLTI gave me the role models that would set an example for me to follow for the next several years. Prior to SLTI, I did not know any other female attorneys. More specifically, I did not know any female attorneys that had a background similar to mine. At SLTI, I met several attorneys that are now my professional mentors.” — Ellen Gill-Franks ’22

The center adds to the Ohio University experience in other ways too:

• The Student Panel on International Justice, for example, focused on the ways people around the world understand and seek justice, with special attention to the politics of truth, law, and reconciliation in divided societies.
• Many speakers engage with CLJC students in small-group settings.
• Students who plan to pursue professions in law, rights advocacy, justice administration, public policy, government, nonprofit organizations, and academic research and teaching can all benefit from interacting with judges, lawyers and other guests who visit campus.

Give today to support Bobcats who share a common interest in law's constitutive and formative role in cultural, political, and social life.