Professor John Mikhail Joins Law Center Faculty
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TUESDAY, SEPT. 28 TO MONDAY, OCT. 4, 2004 NNEEWWSS GEORGETOWN LAW WEEKLY PAGE 7 Professor John Mikhail joins Law Center faculty by Victoria Taylor, 1L Before beginning this fall at Law Weekly Georgetown, Mikhail clerked for Judge Rosemary Barkett of the U.S. The second subject in our profile Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit of new faculty, Professor John in Miami, Florida. While in Miami, Mikhail comes to Georgetown Professor Mikhail, his wife Sarah and University Law Center after a fasci- their daughter Hannah made their nating and diverse career in many home in trendy South Beach, where disciplines. he enjoyed nightly runs with Hannah Professor Mikhail received his on the beach. This past August, PhD in Philosophy at Cornell Mikhail became the father for the sec- University, where he wrote a disser- ond time with the birth of his son, tation on the analogy between rules Andrew. of justice and rules of grammar, Expressing excitement at being in which recent scientific discoveries D.C. and even more enthusiasm at have suggested are innate. His stud- joining the Law Center, Professor ies led him to MIT's Department of Mikhail identifies the breadth and Brain and Cognitive Sciences, where depth of the faculty as a major draw- he was a Lecturer and Research ing point. "Georgetown has such a Affiliate and worked closely with strong and deep faculty in so many of leading cognitive scientists like the fields in which I'm interested, Noam Chomsky, Steven Pinker, and such as constitutional law, interna- Elizabeth Spelke in developing an tional law, and legal theory. I was approach to moral psychology mod- also impressed with the law school's eled on Chomsky's theory of commitment to social justice. It's Universal Grammar. While in truly an honor to join such an out- Cambridge, Mikhail also taught standing community of lawyer-schol- courses in government and public ars." policy at Harvard's Kennedy School This semester, Professor Mikhail of Government, and earned a Dean's is teaching a seminar on Legal Justice Award for excellence in teaching. for Curriculum B 1L students. In the Always wishing to study law, spring of 2005, he will lead a seminar Mikhail proceeded to Stanford Law in Law, Cognitive Science and School, where he became Senior Human Rights. Mikhail says, "The Article Editor of the Stanford Law course addresses human rights from Review and the Senior Submissions a variety of philosophical and psy- Editor of the Stanford Journal of chological perspectives. A natural International Law. Upon graduation, question to ask is whether the cogni- he remained at Stanford as a Visiting tive revolution in psychology has any Scholar and joined the Palo Alto implications, positive or negative, for office of Simpson, Thatcher & our understanding of moral and legal Photo by Rhoda Baer, Courtesy of Georgetown Office of Law Alumni, Development & Public Relations \ Bartlett. norms." Professor John Mikhail, new GULC faculty member. Asian-American groups reach out to law students by James Lee and co-chair of AJLSA, believes that as medicine and engineering, and not University of Maryland, University of Guest Writer there is a more united front among law and humanities. Virginia, and University of Baltimore. the groups compared to last year. However, the relatively low per- Yoo is a co-chair of the event as well. The major Asian-American stu- "Since AJLSA is a relatively small centage does not stop GULC Asian- Despite the success of Asian- dent group at GULC-the Asian organization, it would be great if we Americans, including the faculty, American organizations such as Pacific American Law Students could work with APALSA and pro- from making their mark. Professor APALSA, there has been scholarly Association (APALSA)-held its first mote the Japanese as well as Asian Mari Matsuda is the first Asian- criticism of Asian-American organi- general meeting and happy hour on cultures in GULC," she said. American female tenured law profes- zations, stating that their existence is September 15. Historically, APALSA The presence of these organiza- sor in the United States, and is a lead- just another example of segregation has been famous for its Lunar New tions is a beacon to some Asian- ing practitioner of critical race theory. in America and the reluctance of eth- Year spectacle and celebration held Americans, who encounter a culture Professor Viet Dinh is widely known nic groups to integrate. The rise of the each spring, as well as its outline shock immediately upon entering as the conservative bulwark within a multiethnic church in America is a bank and mentoring program. APAL- GULC. Since many GULC Asian- liberal GULC faculty, and was highly direct response to such criticism. SA is also the umbrella organization Americans hail from areas that have involved in the creation of the USA Dave Gibbons, head pastor of for the American Japanese Law large percentages of Asians, such as PATRIOT Act. APALSA members Newsong Church, a high-profile mul- Students Association (AJLSA) and Los Angeles, San Francisco, have historically raised a strong voice tiethnic church in Irvine, is a critic of the Korean-American Law Students Honolulu, and New York/New as well, with their successful respons- churches that remain predominantly Association (KALSA), groups that Jersey, some students have expressed es to the high-profile insensitivity Asian-American. He believes that promote Japanese and Korean culture that they felt like true minorities for incidents of Abercrombie & Fitch and multiethnicity is the key to ensuring to students regardless of ethnic back- the first time ever upon moving to Dewey Ballantine LLP. that the church remains a relevant ground, and provide a link to those Washington. The exact percentage of The positive contributions of part of American society and culture. who are interested in career options Asian students in GULC was difficult GULC Asian-Americans should con- Gibbons himself is of half Korean, in East Asia. APALSA is also closely to obtain, but estimates range from 8- tinue this year. GULC is excited about half Caucasian descent. connected with the South Asian Law 10 percent, whereas the percentage of the arrival of Professor Jerry Kang of For now, though, Asian- Students Association (SALSA). minorities in GULC is calculated at 25 UCLA School of Law. Professor Kang American organizations are here to Time was also set apart during percent. Although these figures are is visiting this year to teach stay. Kondo countered the recent crit- the meeting for AJLSA and KALSA to high compared to those of many Communications Law and Policy, icism, saying that "most of the people introduce themselves. "We realized American schools, for many incom- Asian-American Jurisprudence, and who signed up for AJLSA during that our general meetings had been ing Asian students, the GULC stu- Civil Procedure. APALSA is also col- Club Fair [on September 8] were not scheduled for the same time in differ- dent body is a totally different world laborating with at least seven other Japanese, and a lot of them were not ent rooms. There was no point in this than that of the undergraduate stu- law schools in the DC area to put Asians." She also pointed out that since all of the organizations wanted dent body of schools such as UC together the second PanAPA "more and more students are study- to be able to reach out to as many Berkeley, UCLA, and UC Irvine, Conference this spring. The confer- ing [or] working abroad and interests people as possible, and since APAL- where the population of Asians cur- ence will feature various panels on in other cultures are expanding," and SA is the umbrella organization for rently exceeds 40 percent, and the different legal and political issues that many of those who show interest [AJLSA and KALSA], we thought it population of whites has dropped to concerning the Asian Pacific in Asian-American clubs are those made sense for the other two organi- a mere 30 percent. Many current American community. The other law who have studied or worked in Asian zations to come to APALSA's meet- Asian-American lawyers lament the schools directly involved with countries and are seeking other stu- ing," said Jenny Yoo, 2L and presi- fact that Asian-American students PanAPA include George Washington, dents with similar interests. dent of APALSA. Sayo Kondo, 2L tend to gravitate toward fields such American, George Mason, Catholic,.