Miscellaneous Legal Rhetoric articles and research for MS of Chicago husband killing and the new unwritten law
Marianne Constable, Professor
Rhetoric
Applications for Fall 2025 are closed for this project.
Chicago Husband-Killing and the New Unwritten Law is a book-length manuscript concerned with a particular defense known as the new unwritten law, which supposedly exonerated women accused of killing their husbands in Chicago at the beginning of the twentieth century. The point of the book is to explore the rhetoric of law and the rhetoric of history. Given that law and history privilege writings as evidence and as sources of authority, how can one write a history of unwritten law?
Most of the research and writing is done, but I would like the new apprentice to work with me and a past apprentice to:
1) read and comment on drafts of the project to get up to speed on status of ms; reformat (put in proper and consistent bibliographic form) footnotes in completed chapters
2) Conduct a little bibliographic work to help fill holes regarding particular cases or their contexts, largely having to do with Chicago history (1867 to 1930's, especially 1920s) women's rights, women's cases, Prohibition. Also 1910s and 20s chapters involve theater and film. Mainly involves searching in a newspaper database (in which I have account) and secondary sources. Some are available as Berkeley online materials, but others require interlibrary use and access.
3)Possibly help coordinate w past URA to put some data in visual form (graphs or figures).
4)I have a couple of other book reviews and articles in various states, which will also need formatting of bibliography, proofing, and so forth. These are in the general area of legal history, legal theory, interdisciplinary legal studies (NOT law review articles)!
Role: Specific role:
- meet w/ me and the apprentice who began last year (and possibly another research assistant) regularly (at set time) every 2 or 3 weeks (preferably in person)
- read, comment, format drafts
- bibliographic searches, formatting, possible summary memos
- some quantitative material turned into visuals
2 units
Qualifications: REQUIRED:
Evidence of interest in and some knowledge of rhetoric, law, philosophy, and/or history of film/media;
Able to both grasp big picture and focus on details of a text (good writer);
Patience to work through proper formatting of notes;
Able to working independently yet ask for help when stymied;
Able to meet with me (and with another ug RA) in-person about getting the work done;
Familiar with UCB libraries and commitment to searching far beyond google and wikipedia and in govt docs and newspapers.
DESIRABLE: upper-division
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: No research supervisor except me, but there will be another UG RA to coordinate with
Hours: 6-8 hrs
Off-Campus Research Site: May need some on-campus errands (books etc from office to library and vv) and we will meet on campus, but as long as work gets done, location and hours for online work (bibliographic, formatting, editing) are flexible.
Arts & Humanities Social Sciences