Digital Legal Research Lab

REU Site: Digital Legal Research Lab

This program is on hold for Summer 2025 and Summer 2026. If you're interested in other opportunities related to this program, please contact us at kjagodinsky@unl.edu. 

Description

Scholars doing research in the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities (CDRH) lab.

Our Digital Legal Research Lab is an interdisciplinary hub for the social scientific study of freedom making in the United States over the long nineteenth century. Our team explores legal mobilization among marginalized actors who leveraged the law to challenge enslavement, deportation, coercive confinement, coverture, and institutionalization. Building an interactive and relational database of petitions for freedom, our lab is committed to training undergraduates in critical legal inquiry, archival research methods, data collection and processing, and in transcription and encoding techniques that allow us to demonstrate patterns and strategies in legal mobilization and legal decision making. Vital to legal scholars and practitioners interested in concepts of justice, liberty, and due process, the database features thousands of freedom stories that are central to the American legal tradition.  

The Digital Legal Research Lab was recently recognized in the Nebraska Today. Read more about our program here: https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/new-research-experience-has-historical-legal-focus/

See the list below for associated mentors and projects.

 

Benefits

  • Competitive stipend: $6,000
  • Suite-style room and meal plan
  • Travel expenses to and from Lincoln
  • Campus parking and/or bus pass
  • Full access to the Campus Recreation Center and campus library system
  • Wireless internet access

Learn more about academic and financial benefits.

Events

  • Department seminars and presentations
  • Professional development workshops (e.g., applying to graduate school, taking the GRE)
  • Welcome picnic
  • Day trip to Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium
  • Outdoor adventures
  • Research symposium

 

Questions about this program?

Please direct any questions related to this program to:

Katrina Jagodinsky: 402-472-2414 • kjagodinsky@unl.edu

Assistant Professor > History

 

 

Who Should Apply

2024 Digital Legal Research Lab REU scholars
Related Fields of Study
  • History
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Communications
  • Ethnic Studies
Eligibility

Participation in the Nebraska Summer Research Program is limited to students who meet the following criteria:

  • U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident
  • Current undergraduate with at least one semester of coursework remaining before obtaining a bachelor's degree

See Eligibility for more information.

Mentors and Projects

MENTORSPROJECTS
Dr. Katrina Jagodinsky, Dr. William Thomas, Dr. Jeannette Eileen Jones

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

Digital Legal Research Lab

Students work throughout the summer to develop digital legal research and legal analysis skills. Learn more about the program and project by visiting: https://uslawandrace.unl.edu/programs/digital-legal-research-lab/. 

Funding

Funding for this research program was generously provided by grants from:

  • NSF - National Science Foundation

FUNDING SOURCE:

NSF REU 2150344

Connect with the Digital Legal Research Lab