LIBRARY PODCAST EXPLORES SCHOOL’S HISTORY

“LEGAL KNOWLEDGE,” A NEW PODCAST produced by the Arthur J. Morris Law Library’s Special Collections department, is exploring the history of legal education at UVA. The show debuted March 29.

Meggan Cashwell, the library’s Horatio and Florence Farmer Postdoctoral Fellow in Legal History, produces the podcast in collaboration with Library Coordinator Addie Patrick and UVA English master’s student Rebecca Barry. Along with Randi Flaherty, head of special collections, and Loren Moulds, head of digital scholarship and preservation, Cashwell is co-editor of a forthcoming contributor volume on the history keeps me going.”

The theme of this year’s conference was “Safeguarding Bodily Autonomy: Examining the Intersections of Health and Justice.” Panels of experts discussed topics on reproductive justice, health care in correctional facilities and detention centers, climate change and indigenous health, and more.

Reproductive justice scholar Khiara M. Bridges, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, delivered the keynote address.

—Melissa Castro Wyatt

of legal education at UVA that inspired the podcast.

Cashwell said “Legal Knowledge” is a way for the library to educate a larger audience about the central themes of the book and the Law School’s history.

“I think this is a timely moment for an institutional history podcast, as UVA continues to grapple with its legacy,” she said. “In our case, curricular history has provided a lens to explore changes in and outside the classroom over time. The podcast is as much about legal teachings as it is the national landscape of the law and major social and cultural developments in the U.S.”

Season one will cover the Law School’s first 100 years over six episodes, with topics ranging from the Law School’s founding and how slavery was taught as a legal concept, to the Civil War and coeducation. Guests include Professor Anne Coughlin and UVA history professor Elizabeth R. Varon.

—Mike Fox