Carissa Byrne Hessick, the Anne Shea Ransdell and William Garland “Buck” Ransdell, Jr. Distinguished Professor at UNC School of Law, has received a prestigious Fulbright Distinguished Chair to conduct comparative research on criminal sentencing practices in Australia. The Fulbright award will support Hessick’s field work in Australia and facilitate her larger book project examining sentencing frameworks across common law countries.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has honored Professor Michael Gerhardt by naming him the recipient of the 2023 Thomas Jefferson Award, the highest accolade conferred by the university. This distinguished award is presented annually to faculty members who exemplify the ideals of Thomas Jefferson, encompassing scholarly excellence, advocacy for democracy, advancement of education, and

As one of the leading scholars on the removal and imprisonment of Japanese Americans in World War II, Eric Muller has spent decades researching and writing about the injustices suffered by these American citizens. In his recent book, Lawyer, Jailer, Ally, Foe: Complicity and Conscience in America’s World War II Concentration Camps, Muller focuses his moral compass on three of the white lawyers who worked as project attorneys for the War Relocation Authority, the civilian agency charged with handling the detention camps. These attorneys provided legal counsel to camp prisoners while also keeping the camp running. Muller explores how Jerry Housel at Heart Mountain in Wyoming, Ted Haas at Poston in Arizona, and James Hendrick Terry at Gila River in Arizona—as well as Japanese American prisoner-lawyer Thomas Masuda, who worked alongside Hass—balanced their professional ethics with their day-to-day responsibilities which perpetuated racial injustice.