The Emerging Scholars program was co-created by Professors Dorothy Brown and Guy-Uriel Charles to prepare prospective law teaching candidates from backgrounds underrepresented in the legal academy for success on the legal academic market. Emerging Scholars receive advice and feedback on interviewing and other job market skills, on how to balance research and teaching responsibilities, and other tools for achieving success on the academic job market and as a legal academic. In addition to the substantive and practical value of sessions such as mock interviews and job talks, participants benefit from the relationships they form with diverse scholars from across the legal academy.

The Culp Colloquium, named in honor of former Duke Law Professor Jerome Culp, a committed mentor of junior faculty, is a scholarship workshop for tenure-track faculty members from backgrounds underrepresented in the legal academy. The host law school’s faculty is joined by law scholars from around the country to review and provide constructive feedback on participants' papers. The sustained nature of these programs – Emerging Scholars become presenters at the Culp Colloquium and Culp Colloquium alums become mentors to Emerging Scholars and Culp Colloquium presenters – increases the probability that participants will achieve long-term career success in the legal academy while also building out a robust and diverse community of legal scholars at all stages of their careers.

These events were housed at Duke Law School through 2019. Beginning in 2020, additional law schools, including those at the University of Chicago and Stanford University, have hosted the annual event in partnership with Duke Law School (through 2021) and now the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School, the new institutional anchor for both Emerging Scholars and the Culp Colloquium.

For more information about the history of the Culp Colloquium and Emerging Scholars, visit: https://web.law.duke.edu/clrp/culpcolloquium/

This event is invitation-only. Invited participants will be provided access to the schedule and conference materials. Please direct any questions or concerns to culpemerging@gmail.com.

This year’s event is being hosted and generously sponsored by the University of Chicago Law School in partnership with the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School and the Duke Law School Center on Law, Race, and Politics.

This convening is open to all invitees who are compliant with UChicago vaccination requirements and, because of ongoing health risks, particularly to the unvaccinated, participants are expected to adopt the risk mitigation measures (masking and social distancing, etc.) appropriate to their vaccination status as advised by public health officials or to their individual vulnerabilities as advised by a medical professional. Public convening may not be safe for all and carries a risk for contracting COVID-19, particularly for those unvaccinated. Participants will not know the vaccination status of others and should follow appropriate risk mitigation measures.

This is a mask-optional convening.  We strongly encourage unvaccinated individuals and those preferring to wear masks to do so.