The Baldy Center Supports Faculty Research

Conferences, workshops, distinguished speakers, and other events

Our events cover a broad array of topics including but not limited to human rights, courts, environmental governance, legal geography, international trade, intellectual property, social inequality, administrative regulation, state and urban government, the legal profession, family, religion, and cultural understandings of law.

The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy

Advancing Legal Scholarship, since 1978

The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy at the University at Buffalo School of Law is an endowed academic center for interdisciplinary research on law and legal institutions. The mission of The Baldy Center is to advance interdisciplinary research on law, legal institutions, and social policy. It does so by supporting research projects, conferences, workshops, fellowships, visiting scholars, speakers, grant proposals, and other promising initiatives.

We fund academic research and events

The Baldy Center Grants

The Baldy Center Grants
7/6/26
The Baldy Center fosters and supports scholars and UB faculty whose work bridges disciplines and contributes to the great and growing mosaic of law and society scholarship. Topics include human rights, courts, environmental governance, legal geography, international trade, intellectual property, social inequality, administrative regulation, state and urban government, the legal profession, family, religion, and cultural understandings of law.

We host visiting scholars

Fellows in Interdisciplinary Legal Studies
7/6/26
Fellows contribute greatly to the vitality of The Baldy Center community.
Speakers
8/17/26
The Baldy Center proudly sponsors a variety of speakers each year who share presentations of their ongoing work on important topics in law and society. The speakers provide an important catalyst for research and dialogue in The Baldy Center community.
Research
7/6/26
The Baldy Center advances interdisciplinary research on law, legal institutions, and social policy. We award research grants to faculty members and support conferences and workshops focused on critical issues. Our Baldy Center postdoctoral fellows and senior fellows intensively engage in their research during funded residencies at The Baldy Center. Our international network of scholars and globally accessible working paper series keep us connected as we catalyze new work in the complex mosaic of law and social policy research.

We produce multimedia to expand access to interdisciplinary research in law and social policy.

The Baldy Center Blog

2026-2027 Blog Posts
9/14/26
The Baldy Center Blog features interdisciplinary perspectives on research, current events, and our distinguished speaker’s presentations and research projects from scholars and others whose work intersects with law, legal institutions, and social policy. The Fall 2026 Blog is underway. Stay tuned.
2025-26 Blog Posts
7/6/26
The Baldy Center Blog features interdisciplinary perspectives on research, current events, and our distinguished speaker’s presentations and research projects from scholars and others whose work intersects with law, legal institutions, and social policy. On this page you will find blog posts for AY 2025-2026.
2024-25 Blog Posts
7/6/26
The Baldy Center Blog features interdisciplinary perspectives on research and current events from UB scholars and others whose work intersects with law, legal institutions, and social policy. On this page you will find blog posts for season AY 2024-2025.
2023-24 Blog Posts
11/6/23
The Baldy Center Blog features interdisciplinary perspectives on research and current events from UB scholars whose work intersects with law, legal institutions, and social policy.
2022-23 Blog Posts
10/4/22
The Baldy Center Blog features interdisciplinary perspectives on research and current events from UB scholars and others whose work intersects with law, legal institutions, and social policy.
2021-22 Blog Posts
8/31/21
The Baldy Center Blog features interdisciplinary perspectives on research and current events from UB scholars whose work intersects with law, legal institutions, and social policy. New blogs are generally released twice a month during each semester.
2020-21 Blog Posts
8/31/20
The Baldy Center Blog features interdisciplinary perspectives on research and current events from interdisciplinary UB scholars whose work intersects with law, legal institutions, and social policy. New blogs are generally released twice a month during each semester.

The Baldy Center Podcast

2025-2026 Podcast Episodes
7/28/26
The Baldy Center Podcast, AY 2025 - 2026, features a panel discussion with Helen “Nellie” Drew (School of Law) and author Ken Belson; plus episodes with our fellowship recipients: Whitney K. Taylor: and, Michael Gibson-Light. Other episodes include Raj Sharman (School of Management); and (Matthew Dimick (School of Law). A special episode features a discussion with Judith Resnik, John Giammatteo, and Alexandra Harrington about Resnik's book, Impermissible Punishments: How Prison Became a Problem for Democracy.
2024-2025 Podcast Episodes
7/6/26
The 2024-2025 edition of The Baldy Center Podcast features episodes with interdisciplinary scholars of law, legal institutions, and social policy. Episodes include discussions by Korydon Smith (School of Architecture and Planning), Monica Miles (Engineering Education), Judith Olin (UB Family Violence and Women’s Rights Clinic) with law student, Jahna Mott (3L). This season's episodes also includs two panel discussions: one with Siwei Lyu (Computer Science and Engineering), Mark Bartholomew (Law), and George Brown (Law); and the another with Jeremy Kessler in conversation with Matthew Dimick (Law), Paul Linden-Retek (Law), and Matthew Steilen (Law).
2023-2024 Podcast Episodes
7/6/26
The 2023-2024 edition of The Baldy Center Podcast features episodes with interdisciplinary scholars of law, legal institutions, and social policy. Guests include: Theophilus Edwin Coleman; Melissa Crouch; Helen “Nellie” Drew; Greta LaFleur; Rebecca R. French and Mark A. Nathan; Paul Linden-Retek; Athena Mutua; Kate Nelischer; and Mihreteab Taye.
2022-2023 Podcast Episodes
7/6/26
The 2022-2023 edition of The Baldy Center Podcast features episodes with interdisciplinary scholars of law, legal institutions, and social policy. Guests include: Shaun Marq Anderson, Samantha Barbas, Claire Cameron, Jorge M. Farinacci-Fernós, and Judith Olin.
2021-2022 Podcast Episodes
7/28/20
The 2021-2022 edition of The Baldy Center Podcast features episodes with interdisciplinary scholars of law, legal institutions, and social policy. Guests include: Samantha Barbas; Anya Bernstein; Helen Drew; Jordan Fox Besek; Matthew Dimick, Daniel Brantes Ferreira; Devonya Havis; David Herzberg; Rachael K. Hinkle; John Schlegel, Victoria Wolcott; and Seth Parker Woods.
2020-2021 Podcast Episodes
7/28/20
The Fall 2020 episodes of The Baldy Center Podcast offer insight from Mark Bartholomew (UB Law), Irus Braverman (UB Law), Amanda Hughett (former Baldy Center Fellow), David Herzberg (UB History), Jennifer Gaynor (Baldy Center) and others. The Spring 2021 episodes include faculty discussing research about: Nurse-Initiated Protocols in Emergency Departments; Tacit Racism; Urban Renewal and School Reform; Harm Reduction; Law, Class and Racial Capitalism on ClassCrits, the opiod crisis; and, the Alison Des Forges International Symposium, among other topics.

The Baldy Center Magazine

Spring 2022 Magazine
7/6/26
The Baldy Center magazine highlights recent University at Buffalo research focusing on law and social policy themes. Global research has flourished this semester with the return of faculty and students to campus, and pandemic-delayed research programs reactivated with immense productivity here in The Baldy Center.
Fall 2021 Magazine
7/6/26
Welcome to the Fall 2021 edition of The Baldy Center Magazine. As we begin the third academic year impacted by the pandemic, we in The Baldy Center are witnessing extraordinary resilience from the scholars linked to our center, who continue to advance their research focusing on critical problems in law and society.
Spring 2021 Magazine
7/6/26
Welcome to the Spring 2021 edition of The Baldy Center Magazine. The past academic year has been a challenging time for all of us, as we’ve adapted to virtual research, online engagement, and socially distanced lives.
Fall 2020 Magazine
7/6/26
Welcome to the Fall 2020 edition of The Baldy Center Magazine, our inaugural issue. The Baldy Center, along with many others around the world, shifted to remote work in March 2020. The months since have offered challenges to us all, as we adapt to virtual research, online engagement, and socially distanced lives. The Baldy Center's past and present fellows and grant recipients have demonstrated their resilience throughout, adapting and advancing their important research in these changing and unusual times. We invite you to learn about their cutting-edge work at the intersection of law, legal institutions, and social policy in our virtual magazine.

More about The Baldy Center

Welcome
7/6/26
News and Notes
7/6/26
On this page you will find a listing of news, stories, and updates about the Baldy Center's activities, initiatives and accomplishments.
Our History
7/6/26
The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy was established in 1978 under a bequest from Buffalo attorney Christopher Baldy. A Buffalo native, Christopher Baldy graduated from the UB Law School in 1910. During his long and successful legal career, he was an active member of the Alumni Association and a member of the University Council from 1950 to 1959.
Indigenous Land Acknowledgement
7/6/26
We would like to acknowledge the land on which the University at Buffalo operates, which is the territory of the Seneca Nation, a member of the Haudenosaunee/Six Nations Confederacy. This territory is covered by The Dish with One Spoon Treaty of Peace and Friendship, a pledge to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. It is also covered by the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua, between the United States Government and the Six Nations Confederacy, which further affirmed Haudenosaunee land rights and sovereignty in the State of New York. Today, this region remains the home to the Haudenosaunee people, and we are grateful for the opportunity to live, work, and share ideas in this territory.
About the University
7/6/26
The University at Buffalo has three campuses: the North Campus in suburban Amherst, the South Campus on Main Street in a North Buffalo neighborhood and the growing Downtown Campus, encompassing several buildings in downtown Buffalo.
About Buffalo-Niagara
7/6/26
The Buffalo-Niagara region is a major metropolitan area with a diverse blend of communities, each with its own distinct character and all united in a rich panorama of life.
Contact Us
7/6/26
The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy is located in 511 O'Brian Hall, on the North Campus of the University at Buffalo, in Buffalo, New York.