In this guest post, Denver Law Review’s Senior Articles Editor, Erik Carlson, explains his law review’s Emerging Scholar Award. This post is aimed at pre-tenure track legal authors who may be interested in DLR’s award, as well as other law review editors who may be interested in establishing their own publication award program.
What is the Emerging Scholar Award, and why did the Denver Law Review establish this annual award?
In an effort to recognize the importance of publishing new legal scholars, the Denver Law Review established the Emerging Scholar Award four years ago. The Emerging Scholar Award selects one winner, who is awarded: (1) $500; and (2) publication in Issue 1 of that Volume’s Denver Law Review print publication.
Eligibility for this exclusive publication opportunity is open to all scholars who meet the following requirements: (1) received their J.D. as of March 1, 2017; (2) have not yet accepted a tenure-track teaching position; and (3) have not held full-time teaching positions for more than three years.
This is the fourth year of the Emerging Scholar Award. How has the award benefitted past recipients, as well as Denver Law Review?
Each of our previous three winners describe winning the Denver Law Review’s Emerging Scholar Award as a springboard for their scholastic publications and, subsequently, their careers. For example, our inaugural winner, Professor Goldburn P. Maynard, Jr., recently received tenure at the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. He noted on numerous occasions that several job interviewers questioned him about the Emerging Scholar Award and indicated that receiving the award made him stick out among colleagues. Other previous winners have described similar benefits, such as instilling confidence in scholastic writing and widening the breadth of their scholastic audience.
The Denver Law Review benefits greatly from the opportunity to publish up and coming authors, by creating new relationships with legal scholars and sharing exciting new legal perspectives. These relationships give our journal invaluable insight into the world of legal scholars. Specifically, members of the Denver Law Review have learned about the process of building a career as a legal scholar and the importance of establishing a network of emerging scholars across a variety of educational institutions.
If a legal scholar wants to apply for this year’s award, what should they expect the application and review process to be like?
The Denver Law Review will accept submissions between April 3rd and April 10th of this year, 2017. Beginning on April 10th, our Articles Team will review the articles according to our standard evaluation criteria and announce the winner no later than April 21st 2017. For more details about submitting, please visit our website.
What advice can your team share with other law reviews that may want to establish a similar award for their publication?
The Denver Law Review encourages other law schools to consider creating a similar program. Not only does it benefit the Denver Law Review by enabling us to meet and work with new legal scholars, but it is a great opportunity for us to connect and work with law faculty at Sturm College of Law. Our faculty found this program to be incredibly valuable and professors insist on helping spread the word to help us secure top-flight entries. Getting the word out and encouraging participation from emerging scholars from a wide submission pool increases the quality of the articles that will ultimately be selected for publication, and this dictates the long-term success of the competition. I would advise a law review considering such an award to utilize all avenues of advertising, including professors and social media.
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