Day 304: Summer Research Dilemma

Applications for Hodges Summer Research Grants are due tomorrow, so I spent this morning finishing the draft of Part I of my book to demonstrate my work in satisfaction of last year’s grant, and this afternoon deciding what to write about next year.

I’ve still got more than a year’s worth of work to do on the book. But I’ve already received the maximum number of summer research grants for that work, so I have to make time for additional research and writing next year as well (or forego the summer grant support).

Photo by Amy Shamblen on Unsplash

A Couple of Thought Balloons

Actually, there are a couple of things on my mind that I’d like to pursue; the hard part was choosing which to propose for this year.

First, I’d like to write an article exploring the pedagogy of teaching lawyers to be entrepreneurs, which I’ve been writing about all year on this blog. As far as I can tell, few law schools are teaching these skills, and I think they should be.

Second, I’ve been reading some immigration economics research lately that has me thinking about an immigration reform proposal. The reform would couple aggressive enforcement of labor violations with distributions to disproportionately affected workers and communities. It’s a simple idea but the full articulation of all the legal, economic, and political dynamics of it might take years.

Make a Choice and Move On

So I resolved my dilemma by proposing the first article for this summer’s grant. In the meantime, I’ll read and think and talk about the second idea and see if there’s any there there. If Article #2 comes together rapidly, I may substitute that for Article #1 (or, if I somehow turn into the Bionic Woman this year, do both).