Hierarchy, Race, and Gender in Legal Scholarly Networks

66 Pages Posted: 26 Jan 2022 Last revised: 6 Feb 2023

See all articles by Keerthana Nunna

Keerthana Nunna

University of Michigan Law School - Alumni

W. Nicholson Price II

University of Michigan Law School

Jonathan Tietz

University of Michigan Law School

Date Written: January 24, 2022

Abstract

A potent myth of legal academic scholarship is that it is mostly meritocratic and mostly solitary. Reality is more complicated. In this Article, we plumb the networks of knowledge co-production in legal academia by analyzing the star footnotes that appear at the beginning of most law review articles. Acknowledgments paint a rich picture of both the currency of scholarly credit and the relationships among scholars. Building on others’ prior work characterizing the potent impact of hierarchy, race, and gender in legal academia more generally, we examine the patterns of scholarly networks and probe the effects of those factors. The landscape we illustrate is depressingly unsurprising in basic contours but awash in details. Hierarchy, race, and gender all have substantial effects on who gets acknowledged and how, what networks of knowledge co-production get formed, and who is helped on their path through the legal academic world.

Keywords: legal scholarship, network analysis, scholarly networks, knowledge co-production, race, gender

Suggested Citation

Nunna, Keerthana and Price II, William Nicholson and Tietz, Jonathan, Hierarchy, Race, and Gender in Legal Scholarly Networks (January 24, 2022). 75 Stan. L. Rev. 71 (2023), U of Michigan Law & Econ Research Paper No. 22-003, U of Michigan Public Law Research Paper No. 22-003, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4015928 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4015928

Keerthana Nunna

University of Michigan Law School - Alumni ( email )

United States

William Nicholson Price II (Contact Author)

University of Michigan Law School ( email )

625 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1215
United States

Jonathan Tietz

University of Michigan Law School ( email )

Ann Arbor, MI
United States

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