The Baldy Center Podcast

In Episode 40 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Melissa Crouch, The Baldy Center Fellow 2024, discusses the role of courts in military regimes and the challenges of studying the military as a constitutional actor. She recently published the paper, “Judicial Loyalty to the Military in Authoritarian Regimes: How the Courts Are Militarized in Myanmar.” 

In Episode 39 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Rebecca R. French and Mark A. Nathan discuss Buddhism and Law in the context of past, present, and future plans for collaborative research among international scholars. Cultivated over decades, this research is seen in the depth and scope of related publications, and, in the remarkable trajectory of the scholarly journal,  Buddhism, Law & Society,  founded at UB School of Law, and continuing at Rutgers University.

In Episode 38 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Mihreteab Taye provides insight into the nuanced dynamics of state behavior in Africa's courts. He finds that the African human rights system does not automatically grant individuals the right to bring cases before the African courts unless states make a declaration allowing direct individual access to the court. Whereas in the East African Court of Justice, individuals have direct access to the Court.  What matters in each court is the institutional design, which can either facilitate or inhibit the withdrawal of individual access to the courts by African states.

In Episode 37 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Greta LaFleur discusses the draft monograph, “‘How Sex Became Good: The Feminist Movements and Racial Politics that Made Modern Sexuality.” LaFleur, recipient of The Baldy Center Podcast Mid-Career Fellowship (2023-24), is associate professor of American Studies and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Yale University. 

In Episode 36 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Helen “Nellie” Drew, Professor of Sports Law, and her 3L students: Maddie Drechsel, Matt Pickard and Juliette Miranda discuss the importance of having pre-established action plans for professional sports injuries, as well as the need for education on how to prevent injuries in youth sports. From model laws to collaborative projects, we discuss the ins and outs of sports injury law and practice.

In Episode 35 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Professor of Law Athena Mutua discusses the importance of protecting critical thinking inside, and outside of, the university setting. She describes its intersection with social justice issues surrounding race, sex, gender, class, and more. Professor Mutua talks about the Critical (Legal) Collective and how the diverse group of scholars has come together to work towards generating real social change.

In Episode 34 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Samantha Barbas speaks about the entanglement of the civil rights movement and mass media law, as well as her new book which encompasses those topics in the context of New York Times v. Sullivan.

In Episode 33 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Jorge M. Farinacci-Fernós speaks about his background, as well as his 2023 book, Puerto Rico’s Constitutional Paradox: Colonial Subordination, Democratic Tension, and Promise of Progressive Transformation.

In Episode 32 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Shaun Anderson opines on both the public and scholarly perceptions of Title IX. Dr. Anderson observes that media and the court of public opinion have the power to challenge and improve the application of Title IX. 

According to the Child Advocacy Center, Erie County has the 2nd highest rate of reported child abuse in New York State — more than 3,000 cases annually. Erin’s Law requires all public schools in each state implement a prevention-oriented child sexual abuse program. In Episode 31 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Claire Cameron, observes that the challenge of implementing Erin’s Law involves the difficulty of having conversations about domestic violence and the sexual abuse of women and children. She suggests that having conversations about implementing Erin's Law can become a way to heal the wounds of domestic violence.

Judith Olin discusses Erin’s Law, which mandates child sexual abuse prevention curricula in schools. She discusses the weaknesses in the implementation of Erin’s Law in New York and the critical need for training school professionals in responding to children who disclose sexual abuse.

Episode 29 of The Baldy Center Podcast features Anya Bernstein discussing judicial populism, the bureaucratic role of law clerks, and the dangers of exclusionary worldviews in law and society.

In Episode 28, Matthew Dimick explains Pareto optimality and the differences between income taxation and legal rules for wealth redistribution. He discusses capitalism, Marxism, and how economists measure the effects various methods of redistribution may have on the economy.

Episode 27 features Seth Parker Woods speaking about the cello and its use in classical music and performance pieces, including the ice cello. At the University at Buffalo, Dr. Woods is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar (2021-22) hosted by the Center for Diversity Innovation. In this podcast he discusses the Fluxus movement, Black composers, and using music and performance to create pieces that reflect events and social issues such as police brutality and the emotions they cause. This episode concludes with a performance by Dr. Woods of two pieces: Bach’s Allemande; and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay’s asinglewordisnotenough.

Episode 26 features Rachael K. Hinkle, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University at Buffalo. Dr. Hinkle speaks about her forthcoming book, co-authored by Morgan Hazelton, Persuading the Supreme Court: The Significance of Briefs in Judicial Decision Making. Hinkle discusses the process of analyzing tens of thousands of briefs, who’s allowed to submit these briefs, and how these documents and who wrote them can influence Supreme Court decisions.

Episode 25 features Victoria Wolcott, a professor in the UB Department of History at the University at Buffalo, speaks about her upcoming book, Living in the Future: Utopianism and the Long Civil Rights Movement. Wolcott discusses activists such as Martin Luther King Jr., Father Divine, and Howard Thurman, and how their shared belief in radical pacifism holds utopian yearnings.

In Episode 24 Daniel Brantes Ferreira, Baldy Center Research Fellow ('20-'22) discusses online sports betting and arbitration in Brazil. He describes how sports betting websites are hosted internationally, not in Brazil, and therefore those business operations are not regulated by Brazilian law. He identifies issues involving 'terms of services' on those websites. His research on mediation and other types of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) requires empirical data, as yet unavailable.  He offers an insider's perspective on Brazil's arbitration process, as an 'ADR-friendly' country. Brantes Ferreira, a professor at Universidade Cândido Mendes, is an arbitrator and vice president for academic affairs at the Brazilian Center of Arbitration and Mediation.

Episode 23 features Devonya Havis, PhD, a 2021-2022 UB Center for Diversity Innovation Distinguished Scholar, and, associate professor in Philosophy at Canisius College.

Episode 22 of The Baldy Center Podcast features Department of Sociology Assistant Professor Jordan Fox Besek. Besek discusses his new project with Brooklyn College professor Daniel Shtob, humanity’s relationship with nature, and climate change. He explores the ways in which humans effect the environment, sometimes producing poor outcomes despite green intentions, and the ripple effect those actions have.

From the heights of his long tenure at the University at Buffalo School of Law, in Episode 21 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Distinguished Professor John Schlegel discusses US economic history, American Legal Realism, and his lived experience with legal education over the last half century, in particular, Critical Legal Studies.

Episode 20 features David Herzberg, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of History, University at Buffalo. Herzberg discusses repeated waves of addiction to pharmaceutical opioids and other medicines in the 20th and 21st century U.S.

Episode 19 features Helen Drew, Professor of Law, and Marissa Egloff, a third year JD candidate, in the University at Buffalo School of Law, discussing their research examining the number of women and minorities in executive or coaching positions in professional sports.

Episode 18 features Samantha Barbas, Professor of Law and Director of The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy in the University at Buffalo School of Law. Professor Barbas discusses her new book from University of Chicago Press (2021) The Rise and Fall of Morris Ernst: Free Speech Renegade. In the 1930s and ’40s,

Episode 15 features Athena Mutua, Professor and Law and Floyd H. & Hilda L. Hurst Faculty Scholar in the University at Buffalo School of Law. Professor Mutua discusses the origins and goals of ClassCrits, which focuses on the heterodox, or political economy approach in law. She presents the new online journal, The Journal of Law and Political Economy and discusses ways in which ClassCrits engages with ongoing and on the ground activist work in significant social issues.

Episode 14 of our podcast series is about the work of the Alison L. Des Forges Memorial Committee, and its international symposia held at the University at Buffalo. Beginning in 2012, the symposia has been sponsored, in part, by The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy. This episode features Roger Des Forges, the group's co-founder. He is joined in discussion with the Committee co-chairs, Ellen Dussourd and Shaun Irlam. Together, they offer insight on aspects of sustaining the Alison Des Forges International Symposia.

Episode 13 features Victoria-Idongesit Udondian, interdisciplinary artist and University at Buffalo Center for Diversity Innovation Distinguished Visiting Scholar in the Department of Art. Udondian discusses her new sculptural work The Republic of Unknown Territory on exhibit in the UB Arts Collaboratory. The work is focused on immigrants’ experiences in migrating and building society. Udondian art installation highlights the politics of the post-colonial global market in second-hand clothing. The gallery exhibit runs from February 27 to March 27, 2021, in The Space Between.

Episode 12 features Marie Jauffret-Roustide, PhD, Senior Fellow in Interdisciplinary Legal Studies at The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, and, Research Fellow at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris, France. Jauffret-Roustide discusses the effectiveness of drug policies that are embedded in human rights and harm reduction, and compares them to repressive drug policies that are ineffective in protecting vulnerable people and the communities in which they live.

Episode 11 features Erkin Özay, assistant professor of Architecture at the University at Buffalo, School of Architecture and Planning. Özay discusses his new book “Urban Renewal and School Reform in Baltimore: Rethinking the 21st Century Public School” (Routledge 2021), and his holistic approach to the relationships among urban development, urban design, and schools.

Episode 10 features co-authors Waverly Duck, Distinguished Visiting Scholar, 2020-21, Center for Diversity Innovation, University at Buffalo, and Anne Rawls, Professor of Sociology at Bentley University. They discuss their new book, Tacit Racism (University of Chicago Press, 2020). Their research focuses on understanding how centuries of institutional racism have shaped interactions between white people and Black Americans into patterns of implicit bias and tacit racism. 

Episode 9 of The Baldy Center Podcast features Jessica Castner, a board-certified emergency nurse and an emergency nurse scientist. In 2014 she received a research grant from The Baldy Center, entitled, Complaint-Specific Protocols: Layers of Regulation and Emergency Nurse Scope of Practice.  In this podcast Castner discusses her current research and recent publication on nurse-initiated protocols in emergency departments, and offers perspective on policy and protocol impacts on pandemic emergency room care in hospitals.

Keywords: Health and Society, Health Policy, Regulation, Emergency Nursing, COVID-19, pandemic.

In episode 8 of the podcast Sarah Ludin discusses her developing book manuscript focused on the socio-legal history of the Early Reformation in Germany, which relies on close readings of 1521-1555 C.E. case files in the Holy Roman Empire to understand the historiography of secularism and the definition and significance of religion as a modern secular legal category.

Episode 7 features Daniel Platt, Assistant Professor at University of Illinois Springfield and former Baldy Center Postdoctoral Fellow. Professor Platt discusses his recent article “The Domestication of Credit,” focused on the moral politics of personal finance in 19th and 20th century U.S., paying specific attention to women’s contributions to household finances, to credit, debt, and financial institutions, and to the roles of coercion and discrimination in a debt economy.

Episode 6 of the podcast features David Gerber, emeritus professor of history at UB and Bruce Dierenfield of Canisius College. Professors Gerber and Dierenfield discuss their new book, focused on the Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District case at the crossroads of disability rights and church-state separation.

In Episode 5 of the podcast Jennifer Gaynor discusses her current research and her previous book, Intertidal History in Island Southeast Asia, which drew on European and Southeast Asian sources, as well as four years in Indonesia, where she worked with rare Bugis language manuscripts and lived in communities of Sama sea people.

Episode 4 of the podcast features Amanda Hughett discussing the history of prisoner labor unions. The work examines how efforts to litigate around prison conditions in the 1970s unintentionally cut against imprisoned people’s efforts to mobilize at the grassroots level.

Episode 3 of the podcast features David A. Westbrook, UB School of Law and Mark Maguire, National University of Ireland Maynooth. Professors Westbrook and Maguire discuss airport security and counterterrorism, and their new book, Getting Through Security: Counterterrorism, Bureaucracy, and a Sense of the Modern (Routledge, 2020).

Episode 2 of the podcast features UB School of Law professor Irus Braverman discussing her upcoming workshop, Medical Posthumanities: Governing Health Beyond the Human. Braverman's work explores holistic approaches to health that include scientific, natural science discussions between ecologists and virologists that also takes into consideration social and cultural understandings and also legal norms.

Episode 1 of the podcast features UB School of Law professor Mark Bartholomew. Professor Bartholomew discusses the pandemic, contact tracing, and the tension between public health security and privacy in using technology to track the coronavirus. Mark Bartholomew received a 2018-2019 research grant from the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy to help support his research, “The Law of Advertising Outrage.”