Here is our schedule of public colloquium sessions with speakers for fall 2022. Assuming that COVID restrictions continue to decline, all sessions will be fully live, and will be followed by dinner nearby with the speaker and a group of about 8 people total (including interested students). All sessions will meet from 4:25 to 6:25 pm, in the NYU Law School main building, Vanderbilt Hall, room 202.
1) Tuesday, September 13: William Gale, Brookings Institution.
2) Tuesday, September 27: Jennifer Taub, Western New England University Law School.
3) Tuesday, October 11: Bridget Crawford, Pace Law School.
4) Tuesday, October 25: Alex Raskolnikov, Columbia Law School.
5) Tuesday, November 15: Goldburn Maynard, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business.
6) Tuesday, November 29: Ariel Jurow Kleiman, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.
A few quick additional notes: (a) I am hoping that we will be able to offer “hybrid” attendance by people who are interested in the sessions but can’t make it to our NYU site. But don’t know yet how the law school will be operating in this respect.
(b) In general, these public sessions meet every other week, Each is preceded by a class-only session discussing the same paper just with the students (albeit possibly with the author’s participation, in person or remotely). However, the November 15 session comes three weeks after its precursor, because Tuesday, November 8, is Election Day. Also, our first week of class is Tuesday, August 30, but this will be a general introductory session for the students, not focused on a particular paper.
(c) Back in the days when we had 14 public sessions instead of 6 – because the semester was a week longer, and I had a co-convenor with whom to share the work – I took a certain pleasure in the concept: “And now for something completely different.” In other words, each week’s paper might have absolutely nothing in common with that from the week before. I both found this personally refreshing and felt that it helped to show the students just how intellectually diverse and far-ranging a field tax policy is or can be. The downside was that it could be a bit overwhelming for people.
(d) This fall, by contrast, with just 6 papers, I feel the optimal approach is a bit different. There will be greater topical continuity, and something of a general theme. Most of the papers will address issues around inequality, in one way or another – although I have told the authors that this should not entirely get in the way of their writing and presenting whatever is of greatest current interest to them (and would work for us). Still, this focus will largely hold. That said, there will be a wide diversity of approaches among our speakers, who differ greatly in their interests and methodologies. Also, inequality itself is a very broad topic, as the papers will collectively help to make clear.