Speaker: Prof. Stuart M. McManus, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Moderator: Prof. Norman P. Ho, Peking University School of Transnational Law

Time: 12:15 PM – 1:30 PM, April 3 (Thursday), 2023, GMT+8

Venue: Zoom Meeting ID: 885 9827 3111 Passcode: 622199

Abstract:

This talk aims to give an overview of the main approaches and skills commonly used by legal historians. While various theoretical frameworks that legal historians might use to understand the past will be discussed, the focus will be on the 'nuts and bolts' of doing legal history. What are the linguistic requirements? What archival, printed and digital sources are suitable for doing legal history? How does legal history fit into the broader legal curriculum/academic landscape?

Biography:

Stuart M. McManus is a humanist and legal historian working on law, slavery and empire in world history from a global and multi-ethnic perspective. He also has interests in the history of classical scholarship and Chinese humanities. He received his Ph.D. in history (secondary field in classical philology) from Harvard University, where he also studied civil law. Prior to joining the CUHK faculty, he taught Mexican and ancient Mediterranean history for two years at the University of Chicago, where he was the inaugural postdoctoral fellow at the Stevanovich Institute on the Formation of Knowledge. He is the author of the bookEmpire of Eloquence: The Classical Rhetorical Tradition in Colonial Latin America and the Iberian World(Cambridge University Press, 2021) and he is beginning work on a second book on the global legal background of the famous 1619 slave voyage to Virginia. His articles have appeared in theAmerican Historical Review,Hispanic American Historical Review, Gender & History, Latino Studies, Catholic Historical Review, and other journals.

Source: School of Transnational Law