Dear RSF:

Please join us this Wednesday, April 3rd at 11 in the library and on Zoom for Visiting Scholar Kathryne Young’s presentation, “Legal Consciousness and Access to Justice”. 

Young is Associate Professor of Law (and by courtesy, Sociology) at George Washington University. She holds a PhD in Sociology and a JD from Stanford University, as well as a BA in American Studies and an MFA in creative writing. She began her faculty career in the Sociology Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she received tenure and won the University Teaching Award. Young is a past Associate Editor of Law & Society Review and the current Secretary of the Law and Society Association.  She has been an Access to Justice Faculty Scholar at the American Bar Foundation and was named a Mellon Emerging Faculty Leader in 2020.  

At RSF, Young is investigating common civil justice problems such as landlord-tenant disputes and consumer debt from the perspective of everyday people. She hopes that better understanding their “legal consciousness”—attitudes, beliefs, and understandings about law—facilitates design of justice solutions that meet people where they are. Her mixed-methods research draws on survey data from over 3600 U.S. adults as well as longitudinal interviews with over 100 people going through civil justice problems.