The Legal Materiality Network is an international and interdisciplinary community of scholars (including 11 from Kent Law School) which critically explores law in its material forms.
The Network, sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, comprises more than 40 scholars from around the world and is co-convened by Kent Law School Senior Lecturers Dr Hyo Yoon Kang and Dr Sara Kendall together with Dr Stuart Murray from Carleton University in Canada.
More than being just a collection of texts defining rules, decisions and judgments, the Network frames law as a form of power that operates over bodies and across spaces. It brings together scholars and artists to study law as “an assemblage of materials, norms, discourses and knowledge practices.”
The Network aims to develop a deeper understanding of the materiality of law and to examine how law shapes and regulates people and the world around us.
As well as looking at how law is changing in relation to new technologies, the Network is collaborating across disciplines to explore how artistic and political interventions can contribute to scholarship on law’s matters, media and materiality.
Academics from Kent Law School involved in the project include:
- Dr Jose Bellido
- Anne Bottomley
- Professor Emilie Cloatre
- Professor Maria Drakopoulou
- Professor Emily Grabham
- Dr Connal Parsley
- Professor Amanda Perry-Kessaris
- Dr Gavin Sullivan
- Dr Nayeli Urquiza Haas
More information about the project – its objectives, events, blog posts, publications, resources and members – is available on The Legal Materiality Network website. You can also follow the Network’s latest news and developments on Twitter: @LawsMatters