Register for our 2026 Northeast Law and Society Retreat on Oct. 2
We are pleased to welcome faculty, staff and students to our fourth Law and Society Retreat on the Beautiful UMass Amherst campus. Find more information and register here by September 17. The event is free for Five College Faculty and Students.
The event schedule is as follows:
12:00pm-1:00pm
Professionalization Training on Public Engagement
Afternoon Plenaries
1:00pm-2:30pm
“Law and Political Participation”
Joseph Cozza (Smith College, Jonathan Obert (Amherst College), Erin Pineda (Smith College) and Jesse Rhodes (UMass Amherst)
3:00pm-4:30pm
“Migration and Democracy”
Rhacel Parrenas (Princeton University), Jaya Ramji-Nogales (Temple University), and Michael Ahn Parlberg (Virginal Commonwealth University)
4:30pm-6:00pm
Reception with cash bar
Announcing Our 2026 Fellows
Undergraduate Fellows — Summer 2026 RISE Into Research Fellowship
"Leading on the Edge: Risk Profiles and Survival in NCAA Division I Coaching and the Glass Cliff Phenomenon" Varija Manglik, mentored by Dr. Adaora Ubaka
"Talking Politics: Political Discourse in College Classrooms" Mariama Jallow, mentored by Dr. Musbah Shaheen
"Prom Send-Off" Qua'Nae Golston-Thomas, mentored by Dr. Sadiyah Malcolm-Wallace
"Piloting 'Ubuntu' as Arts-Based Social Cohesion at UMass Amherst" Afia Ansar, mentored by Dr. Sindiso Mnisi Weeks
Learn More About The Fellowship
Graduate Fellows — 2026–2027 Cohort
Tim Hastings — Department of History
Salma Khan — Department of Economics
Lilian Valencich — Department of Political Science
Fuyu Zheng — Department of Sociology
Makhai Pells — W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies
Read our 2025-2026 Newsletter
This year, we successfully completed our fourth year of undergraduate and graduate fellowships, and selected our fifth cohorts; organized the Five College Justice, Law, and Society Speaker Series; piloted the Dialogue Across Difference series to explore diverse opinions on pressing policy issues; led four Community Talks, an informal QandA between legal experts and the campus and broader community; organized and hosted a QandA with Erica Chenoweth, the country’s preeminent scholar on nonviolent civil resistance; organized university wide webinars on the capture of Nicholas Maduro and the war in Iran.
In the news
All News
Read the 2024 - 2025 Newsletter
Read about this year's accomplishments, new fellows, and learn more about CJLS' initiatives.
Interested in CJLS Co-Sponsoring Your Event?
CJLS aims to foster research, teaching, and public engagement related to bias, inequity, and inequality in the law. We are able to support select programming and events at UMass Amherst that relate to the themes and questions of justice, law, and societies.
Want to Support CJLS?
If you are interested in supporting CJLS and its mission, follow the link below and list the Center for Justice, Law, and Societies under “gift designation” and “special instructions.” Your support is critical to providing research opportunities for students, timely public events, and other research activities. We thank you for your support!
The Center for Justice, Law, and Societies (CJLS) at the University of Massachusetts is an interdisciplinary center dedicated to the study of law and society. Our programming focuses on public-facing scholarship to bring the academic and practitioner community into greater dialogue about public policy, criminal justice reforms, access to justice, and the well-being of our local community, our state, our nation, and the world.
CJLS hosts regular public events, shares research from our core and affiliated faculty, and creates programs for undergraduate and graduate student professional development. We are committed to enhancing diversity and inclusion in the academy, addressing systemic injustices in the academy and in our social and political institutions, and ensuring that our work serves all members of our society.