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Activist Scholarship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Richard O. Lempert
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Abstract

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This comment responds to Frank Munger's Law and Society Association Presidential Address on scholars as activists. It argues that scholarly research can both constitute and fuel activism. Activist scholarship is, however, not confined to scholars in any one part of the political spectrum. Deeply held values can motivate exceptional work but also raise the danger that political commitments will unduly influence purportedly “objective” findings. Value-infused research should be true to research values even if inspired by political ones.

Type
Presidential Address
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , 2001 , pp. 25 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 by the Law and Society Association

Footnotes

Richard O. Lempert is the Francis A. Allen Professor of Law and Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan. He is a winner of the Law and Society Association's biennial Harry Kalven, Jr. Award and a former editor of the Law and Society Review. He co-edited (with Jacques Normand and Charles O'Brien) Under the Influence: Drugs and The American Work Force and is the author (with Joseph Sanders) of An Invitation to Law and Social Science and (with Sam Gross and James Liebman) of A Modern Approach to Evidence, 3rd edition. He has most recently been working with Terry Adams and David Chambers examining data relating to the careers of Michigan Law School's alumni. He is also currently directing the University of Michigan's Life Sciences, Values and Society Program.

References

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