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Prospective 2025-2026 Bellow Scholars Workshop
January 31, 2025
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm EST (9:00 - 11:00 am PST)
Please RSVP here by January 30, 2025.
The submission window for the 2025-2026 Bellow Scholars class is now open.
Request for Bellow Scholar Research Project Proposals
Every other year, the AALS Committee on Lawyering in the Public Interest, commonly known as the Bellow Scholar Committee, seeks Project Proposals for a new class of Bellow Scholars.
Developed in 2002, the Bellow Scholar Program recognizes and supports the research projects of clinical law teachers that reflect the ideals of Professor Gary Bellow, a pioneering founder of modern clinical legal education. Every two years the Bellow Scholar Program seeks innovative proposals designed to improve the quality of justice in communities, enhance the delivery of legal services, and promote economic and social justice. In particular, the Committee is interested in recognizing and supporting projects that employ empirical analysis as an advocacy tool and involve substantial collaboration between law and other academic disciplines. Bellow Scholar projects become the focus of information‐sharing, discussion and critique at the annual AALS Clinical Conference and at annual workshops organized by the Committee. Bellow Scholars are appointed for a two‐year term.
Click here for the Bellow Scholar Program Timeline
Bellow Scholar Project Proposals should be drafted with consideration of the Selection Criteria below and include the following sections: (1) Project goals; (2) Detailed project description including an overview of the theories that animate the project, research questions, methodological approach, data to be collected, connection to clinical teaching, and description of interdisciplinary collaboration; (3) Project timeline. Bellow Scholars will be announced at the beginning of every other year.
Inquiries should be directed to bellowscholarprogram@gmail.com. Committee Chairs are Lisa Martin (LVMARTIN@law.sc.edu) and Alina Ball (aball@clinical.law.berkeley.edu).
Bellow Scholar Selection Criteria
Proposals from prospective scholars will be assessed for their overall potential to become successful research projects with specific attention to the following criteria:
Substantial potential for contributions to knowledge related to reducing poverty and inequality or improving access to justice.
Substantial potential to become a high-quality, theoretically-grounded, methodologically rigorous research project.
Degree to which:
o the project involves collaboration between law and at least one other discipline.
o the research is connected to the proposed scholar’s clinical teaching and practice.
o the scholar and the proposed project have potential to contribute to the Bellow Scholar community (see Expectations of Bellow Scholars below).
The prospective scholar's statement of how s/he hopes to benefit from participation in the Bellow Scholar Program.
Expectations of Bellow Scholars
Once selected, Bellow Scholars become members of the Bellow Scholar Committee and join a community of supportive researchers. The Committee encourages the work of current Bellows, and clinical law teachers interested in empirical research, through a variety of activities each year. During their two‐year term, Below Scholars are required to participate the Committee activities described below.
The ongoing presentation commitment of Bellow Scholars accomplishes two critical goals. It provides a structure for Scholars to receive consistent research feedback and support throughout the two-year Bellow Scholar term, helping to facilitate publication of research findings. The commitment also helps the Committee continue its tradition of promoting empirical research and building community among the committee members. Previous Bellow Scholars agree that this ongoing feedback not only enhances the Bellow project, but assists scholars in creating new and improved follow‐up research projects.
The Committee hopes past scholars—those whose terms are complete—will actively participate in Bellow Scholar Committee work, such as selecting future Scholars, planning the Bellow Scholar Workshop, attending events, mentoring prospective and future Scholars, or serving as a Bellow Scholar Committee co-chair.