LAW, SOCIETIES & JUSTICE FACT SHEET

• LSJ serves about 200 majors and a similar number of minors each year.
• LSJ offers a graduate certificate in socio-legal studies to PhD students from across the College of Arts and Sciences as well as from the Law School and the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance.
• LSJ faculty have won a variety of awards, including the UW Distinguished Teaching Award, the UW Distinguished Public Service Award, the UW Marsha Landolt Award for Graduate Mentoring, the Law and Society Association’s Herbert Jacob Book Prize, and many more.

Undergraduate Education

The Law, Societies, and Justice Department offers undergraduate students a dynamic and engaged interdisciplinary liberal arts education focused on law, rights, and justice. LSJ courses analyze the meaning of justice, the methods used in efforts to realize it, the politics of rights, and the complex roles that law and legal institutions play in structuring social life. Many courses analyze these issues in comparative perspective and focus on Latin America, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and elsewhere. LSJ faculty are trained in diverse social science fields including anthropology, geography, political science, and sociology. This interdisciplinarity enables students to explore topics from a variety of perspectives.

Our faculty, students, and alumni are active in the Puget Sound region and beyond, collaborating with a host of non-profits, humanitarian associations, and government organizations. Courses emphasize active classroom engagement with complex ideas, community engagement, experiential learning, and the development of the capacity to develop and support arguments in oral and written communication. In this way, undergraduate LSJ courses enable students to develop the core skills of a liberal arts education rather than to prepare for a particular professional path.

LSJ offers a variety of engaged and experiential learning opportunities. For example, students in the Philanthropy Lab course analyze how to address complex rights and justice-related issues and how to most impactfully allocate funds to grass-roots advocates working on that issue. LSJ also offers a variety of study abroad opportunities in places ranging from Amsterdam to Rome, Jamaica, Geneva, South Africa, Spain and elsewhere. LSJ's prison education program provides unique opportunities for majors to learn alongside incarcerated students.

The LSJ curriculum includes an array of popular introductory courses along with a large, diverse menu of smaller seminars. The LSJ Honors Program connects individual students to faculty mentors and enables students to pursue a research topic of their choosing in depth.
 

Graduate Education

LSJ offers a graduate certificate in socio-legal studies for PhD students from across the social sciences as well as those in the Law School and the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. The graduate program creates opportunities for scholars to present and engage research on topics related to socio-legal studies, punishment and social control, human rights, and humanitarianism.
 

Students

Winter 2025

• 247 undergraduate majors
• 150 undergraduate minors
• 26 graduate certificate students

Degrees Awarded

July 2023 - June 2024

• 144 Bachelor of Arts degrees

Major Student Awards

Since 2016

• 1 President’s Medalist
• 2 Dean’s Medalists
• 18 Husky 100 honorees
• 1 Henry Luce Scholar
• 2 Alumni Public Service Law Scholars
• 1 Bonderman Travel Scholar
• 1 Ronald McNair Scholar
• 1 Fulbright Scholar
• 1 Homecoming Scholar

LSJ alumni pursue a wide array of careers. Many work in the legal field; others work in human rights, public policy, civil rights, business, education, and the non-profit sector. Many make outstanding contributions to their communities and families. LSJ alumni play a crucial role in the department, serving as mentors, panelists, and more.

There are ten core LSJ faculty members, many of whom are jointly appointed with another department.

Winter 2025

• 6 Professors
• 2 Associate Professors
• 1 Associate Teaching Professor
• 3 Assistant Professors

LSJ faculty are well known for their internationally recognized research and teaching excellence. LSJ faculty have published award-winning books and received numerous accolades. An LSJ faculty member recently served as president of the Law and Society Association, the major international scholarly organization for socio-legal scholars, and one serves as director of the University of Washington Human Rights Center. Two recent winners of the University's Public Service Award are members of the LSJ faculty.

Major Faculty Awards and Honors

University of Washington

• Distinguished Teaching Award
• Distinguished Public Service Award
• Marsha Landolt Award for Graduate Mentorship
• James D. Clowes Award for the Advancement of Learning Communities
• Women’s Center Woman of Courage Award

State and National

• Law and Society Association Herbert Jacob Book Prize
• Washington Academy of Sciences
• ACLU Presidential Award for Lifetime Contributions to Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
• Consortium of Social Science Associations Public Impact Award
• Law and Society Association Outstanding Article Award

LSJ faculty produce high quality scholarship on a variety of topics related to law, rights, and justice. This work is often produced in collaboration with advocates, non-profits, and other change agents. The Department of Law, Societies, and Justice regularly sponsors seminars, colloquia, and workshops featuring the research of our faculty and visiting scholars. The Department is recognized as a campus leader in sponsoring events addressing human rights. LSJ works closely with several major interdisciplinary research centers affiliated with Law, Societies, and Justice, including the Bridges Center for Labor Studies and the Center for Human Rights. LSJ Graduate Fellows have produced award-winning research and secured faculty positions at national and international universities. 

Areas of Research

• Human rights
• Comparative law and legal institutions
• Criminal law and punishment
• Immigration, citizenship, and rights
• Refugee studies
• Socio-legal studies
• Disability rights
• Race, gender, and the law
• Forgiveness, reconciliation, and restorative justice
• Humanitarianism

Grants

• National Science Foundation
• Ford Foundation
• Paul G. Allen Foundation
• Seattle International Foundation
• Washington State Minority and Justice Commission
• Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada
• National Research Council of Norway
• Fetzer Institute
• UW Royalty Research Fund
• UW Global Innovation Fund

LSJ majors serve as interns in justice-oriented organizations across the Puget Sound. Faculty regularly collaborate with community partners and connect their students with a variety of community groups and advocates. They also participate in community events around the Puget Sound region, write opinion pieces for prominent outlets, and are interviewed by major national and international media outlets. Faculty also engage in outreach by producing podcasts and by developing civic engagement resources for use in high schools and colleges across the United States.

Law, Societies, and Justice
Mailing address: Box 353565, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
Office location: Smith M253
Phone: (206) 543-4762
Fax: (206) 685-2146
Email: lsjadv@uw.edu
Website: http://lsj.washington.edu

last update: December 2024