Michele Statz is an anthropologist of law. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth and an affiliate faculty with the University of Minnesota Law School. She is also an Access to Justice Faculty Scholar at the American Bar Foundation. Michele’s current research examines how socio-spatial dimensions of rurality influence legal advocacy, rights mobilization, and the work of tribal and state court judges in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. This project stretches the usual bounds of analysis by underscoring rural individuals’ own expertise and experiences of the “rural lawscape.” It likewise identifies necessary opportunities for these perspectives to inform and innovate policy, practice, and applied research methodologies. Statz’s research has been published in Harvard Law and Policy Review, Law & Society Review, American Journal of Public Health, and Health and Place. Statz’s research has been published in Harvard Law and Policy Review, Law & Society Review, American Journal of Public Health, and Health and Place. Michele also co-founded and co-curates Youth Circulations, an online platform for art, activism, and scholarship on mobility and the politics of representation.
Katie Young is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, an Access to Justice Faculty Scholar at the American Bar Foundation, and an Associate Editor of Law & Society Review. She holds a JD from Stanford Law School and a PhD in Sociology from Stanford University. Her research investigates the ways that social processes create and maintain inequality in law and legal institutions, including parole hearings, law schools, police-citizen interactions, and situations that implicate access to civil justice. Her current research looks at the social sources of variation that shape people's understanding and pursuit of solutions to their civil justice problems. Katie's work has been published in numerous law reviews and peer-reviewed social science journals, including Harvard Law Review, Social Forces, Rural Sociology, Law & Social Inquiry, Law & Society Review, and California Law Review. She has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Washington State Supreme Court.