Post-Grant Reports

Title

Faculty Development Grant Report

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

1-25-2019

Disciplines

American Politics | Civil Rights and Discrimination | Constitutional Law | Gender and Sexuality | Law and Gender | Law and Politics | Law and Society | Performance Studies | Political Science | Politics and Social Change | Sexuality and the Law | Supreme Court of the United States | Theatre and Performance Studies

Abstract

My new book-length project, Love Trials: The U.S. Supreme Court, Marriage, and the Performance of Evidence, continues my research on the intersection of contemporary U.S. politics and performance by examining how love and intimacy are put on trial. Looking at miscegenation and gay marriage cases, it asks: how does the law try to regulate emotion, and what happens when performances of love become evidence? My research for this project has involved attending the district-level trial in San Francisco of the Proposition 8 case and directing productions of a documentary play about that trial. On January 6, 2019, thanks to a research grant from Linfield, I flew to Washington to attend arguments at the Supreme Court; I observed not only the ceremonies and rituals that occur in that room where cameras are forbidden, but also the intangible dynamics between and among justices and attorneys. I also conducted archival research in the Library of Congress, reviewing the papers of Chief Justice Earl Warren, who wrote the unanimous majority decision in Loving v. Virginia, the case that made it illegal to ban interracial marriage. This research will prove very useful as I work on my book project.

Comments

This research was conducted as part of a Linfield College Faculty Development Grant in 2019, funded by the Office of Academic Affairs.

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