Our faculty are leaders in scholarship, teaching and service, as detailed in our faculty profiles. Here are highlights of their recent achievements:
UGA Associate Provost & Kirbo Chair Elizabeth Weeks has been named the University of Georgia liaison for the Southeastern Conference Academic Leadership Development Program. As a liaison, she will work with the chief academic officer at UGA to identify individuals to participate as fellows in the SEC ALDP, and will collaborate with liaisons from other SEC member universities to administer the multi-faceted SEC program.
Associate Dean for International Programs & Post Professor Melissa J. "MJ" Durkee presented “Space Law as Twenty-First Century International Law” at “The Emerging Commercial Space Age: Legal and Policy Implications” symposium co-hosted by the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition and its Journal of Law & Innovation.
Veterans Legal Clinic Staff Attorney Katie Becker successfully persuaded the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to award benefits to a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom in the early 2000s. The veteran's experiences as a combat medic caused him post-traumatic stress disorder, and an explosive blast caused a traumatic brain injury. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs initially denied the veteran benefits, finding no current diagnosis. Using a Veterans Legal Clinic-funded psychologist, Becker obtained an evaluation of the veteran with which she persuaded the VA that the veteran experiences both PTSD and TBI. The decision resulted in a substantial retroactive award and ongoing monthly payments to the veteran.
Brumby Distinguished Professor in First Amendment Law Sonja R. West will join the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University as a visiting senior research scholar for the 2023-24 academic year. She will work with the University of Utah's RonNell Andersen Jones to "explore how law and policy can better protect journalism and core press functions in the United States." The pair will engage scholars and practitioners in law, media studies, technology, history and political science in a series of regional workshops and blog posts, leading up to a major symposium on the "contours and future of press freedom" to be held spring 2024.
Assistant Professor Thomas E. Kadri received an Affordable Course Materials Grant for his course titled Regulating Digital Abuse. Awarded by the UGA Provost's office, the purpose of the grant is "to support the transition from costly course materials such as textbooks to educational resources that are free for students or cost less than $40." Notably, this is Kadri's third course materials grant. He previously created learning resources for his torts and cybercrime classes.