Pedagogy
Regarding students, I am most interested in the ways they challenge the law and me. So, I don’t quite feel as if I am “inducting” them into a world, but more that I am introducing them to a world that they will change. My notions of “equality” and “sexuality”-to take but two examples-are quite different from their notions, yet there are many commonalities. . . . my writing (both fictional and scholarly) has benefited from developing the skills that benefit a teacher-patience, clarity, and enthusiasm. Additionally, I find that the same paradoxical ego is required for both pursuits: one must have an incredibly strong ego (how else to stand in front of 160 students and believe one has something to say). And with this strong ego one must simultaneously have a mind set of “no ego” (teaching is not about the teacher and writing is not about the writer).
From A Conversation (with James R. Elkins), 29
Legal Studies Forum145-171 (2005)
Ruthann Robson teaches at City University of New York School of Law.
Discussions of Ruthann Robson’s pedagogy:
Kris Franklin, Theory Saved My Life, 8 NYC L Rev 599 - 631 (2005)
Kim Brooks, Feminists, Angels, Poets, and Revolutionaries: What I’ve Learned from Ruthann Robson and Nicole Brossard on what it means to be a Law Teacher, 8 NYC L Rev 633- 655 (2005)
Selected Works
Law Students as Legal Scholars, 7 NYC Law Review 195-211 (2004) (an essay/review of
SCHOLARLY WRITING FOR LAW STUDENTS and ACADEMIC LEGAL WRITING).
Critical Challenges: A Conversation on Complicity and Civility in Legal Academia, 1 Seattle J. of Social Justice 601-629 (2003) (co-authored)
The Zen of Grading, 36 Akron Law Review 303-323 (2003)
The Politics of the Possible: Reflections on a Decade at CUNY School of Law, 4 NYC Law Rev. 245 - 257 (2000)
Pedagogy, Jurisprudence and Lesbian Sex in a Law School Classroom, in Lesbian Erotics (ed. Karla Jay) (New York University Press) (1995) reprinted in SAPPHO GOES TO LAW SCHOOL.
Ruthann Robson