Yale Law School

Eighth Annual Doctoral Scholarship Conference

Call For Papers

Yale Law School is proud to host the Eighth Annual Doctoral Scholarship Conference on
November 9-10, 2018 in New Haven, Connecticut. The conference aims to provide doctoral
students and early-stage postdocs with a forum to workshop, present and debate their work. It
seeks to promote quality research and to facilitate meaningful academic dialogue with a view
towards fostering a community of legal scholars.

The conference is open to all current doctoral candidates in law or related disciplines and to those
who completed their doctoral degrees during the 2016-2017 or 2017-2018 academic year.
Participants will be selected based on the quality of their abstracts and their capacity to provoke
thoughtful debate with other submissions.

This year’s conference will be divided into four workshops that will run in parallel, each with
around eight participants. The workshops will cover papers in “International Law,” “Constitutional
Law,” “Incentives and Social Goals” and “Law, Politics and Theory.” We welcome the submission
of papers that use a variety of methodologies, including scholarship that is interdisciplinary,
empirical, doctrinal, comparative or historical.

The purpose of this breakdown into workshops is to allow enough time for each paper to be
thoroughly workshopped and receive comments from scholars who are well versed in the academic
field in which each paper is situated. Authors will be expected to offer a brief, 10-minute
introduction to their paper followed by an intensive workshop-like discussion. Participants will be
expected to attend all conference events. They must also read, in advance, and come prepared to
comment on and discuss all papers presented in their respective workshop. We anticipate that the
conference will be the beginning of a longer-term collaboration amongst participants.
All participants will also have an opportunity to attend several receptions, keynotes and workshops
by Yale Law School faculty to get to know one another, advance their professional development
and socialize.

The Doctoral Scholarship Conference is generously sponsored by the Graduate Programs Office
at Yale Law School. We regret that we are unable to provide financial support for travel and
accommodation.

Submissions

Applications will be accepted through the online form available at the conference website until
July 12, 2018. Applicants must indicate which of the four workshops their proposal is to be
associated with; each proposal can only be associated with one workshop. A proposal must consist
of: (1) an extended abstract of up to 500 words; and (2) a brief one-paragraph biographical note.
Decisions will be communicated no later than August 6, 2018. Selected participants will be
required to submit papers of up to 10,000 words in length (excluding footnotes) by October 1,
2018, which will be circulated among the participants of their respective workshop.

For any questions or concerns, please contact doctoralconference.law@yale.edu.