Hey! Can anyone talk about what’s going on with the LLS major at UChicago? The course catalog says the major had gone under “extensive review”, with the “need to enhance the program’s teaching and administrative resources”. Is there something lacking in LLS, or can any LLS majors talk about their experiences?
For current seniors, we also can’t choose LLS as a potential major on the Common App, which is interesting because LLS was one of the most fascinating areas of interest I was drawn to at UChicago. Thanks!
It is not currently offered as a major.
Actually, here is the story, so you should be good to go by the time you want to declare a major:
"The Law, Letters, and Society major will resume in Spring Quarter of 2018. This follows an extensive review of the program that has both confirmed the value of the major for the College and the need to enhance the program’s teaching and administrative resources. Given these needs, the faculty have decided not to accept applications to the major until Spring Quarter of 2018, with a new admissions process for members of the Class of 2021. Students admitted through that process will begin the program in Autumn Quarter 2018.
For current majors in the Classes of 2017 and 2018, the major requirements (described below) will remain unchanged. The requirements for the Class of 2021 will be announced before selection of the new cohort. For the coming year, all other students interested in the academic and scholarly study of the law should consult with their individual advisers to discuss complementary programs of study."
http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/thecollege/lawlettersandsociety/
Here’s some complete speculation: My impression is that LLS was the personal project of Dennis Hutchinson, a long-time law professor at Chicago, very charismatic and much loved, a big thinker who slid over into undergraduate education and (in addition to his academic appointments and chairing LLS) has some sort of deanship and is Master of the New Collegiate Division (sort of the funky undergraduate majors division of the university). Hutchinson is over 70 and may be close to retirement. Keeping LLS alive in a post-Hutchinson world either requires that one or two people of similar prestige and energy pick up the cudgel from him and make it their personal project, or that the faculty and administration have pretty broad consensus that it’s a valuable field of undergraduate study. Neither of those conditions was guaranteed to be met.
The new acceptances for 2018 have just been announced. It’s competitive admissions to the program. About 25% from already strong UChicago freshmen. Hutchinson is alive and well and runs the program with the help of Andrew Hammond. It is highly regarded and people love it.
@Churchill - do you know how many applied and was it 100% first years or did they allow some 2nd years as well?
Only first years 90 applied.
That’s crazy! Why would 90 kids apply to be Law Letters & Society majors?
Why is it crazy ? Has great reputation and super cool courses and offers a great deal of interdisciplinary freedom.
Wasn’t it under review for the past couple years? Even assuming that first years Had known about the major before starting at University of Chicago, how Were they brought up to speed on how the revamped major would look?
Not sure it was that significantly revamped. seems like It was on hold for one year only.
The description of the program is totally amusing. This has to be some sort of classic of a genre that barely exists: A set of requirements promulgated by people who are both unsure about the value of requiring anything and unwilling to commit to what the requirements are going to be. I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything like it; certainly not in a college catalog. And my major was called “Literature”; it basically existed as an uneasy alliance between people who wanted a major that would accommodate study of pop-culture literary forms sneered at by the English Department, like comic books, song lyrics, or pornography, and people who wanted to have a major in literary theory (also sneered at by the English Department, by a bare majority vote) that wasn’t conducted entirely in French or German.
http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/thecollege/lawlettersandsociety/
The major description pretty much parodies its own methods – it is both self-conscious and transgressive as an example of the academic discourse of major requirements and unapologetically (except maybe a little) a product of its time and place.
Enjoyed reading your post. Yet totally disagree. It’s law in context of history, culture, philosophy and politics. And it gives those selected the opportunity to pick adjacent classes, ranging from economics to linguistics. It’s great. It provides the broad context for law.
What do you disagree with? I agree with what you wrote, except that there’s a little bit more language theory in LLS, while you are emphasizing the “S” part, which is by far the more conventional part of the major. Lots of people do that.
I was just interested in the fairly radical indeterminacy of the course listings and description of the program.
If a student wants to do a research paper on legal themes in Byzantian literature and the Bible — the can. They have six electives outside the listed courses.
There is no agreement – express, implied, contractual, statutory or otherwise – that LLS kids cannot or will not go to law school. What is clear is that LLS is not a professional pre-law major. Many LLS kids do go to law school. Law schools respect the broad interdisciplinary nature of the major, its rigor and selective admissions.
Maybe the fact that many LLS kids go to law school answers @JHS’s question earlier as to why 90 kids would apply to this major.
Even with 90 applying, it’s still a small number compared to many others.
That’s true but this was the first year of the major’s return. The number of applicants will probably increase next year which is fine, as it sound like an intriguing major. If interest increases the College might have to figure out how to open it up to more students.
it used to be 100.