The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy

Advancing Legal Scholarship, from 1978 to today

The Baldy Center welcomes new faculty.

The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy at the University at Buffalo School of Law is an endowed academic center for interdisciplinary research on law and legal institutions. The mission of The Baldy Center is to advance interdisciplinary research on law, legal institutions, and social policy. It does so by supporting research projects, conferences, workshops, fellowships, visiting scholars, speakers, grant proposals, and other promising initiatives.  

We host visiting scholars

We fund academic research and events

The Baldy Center fosters and supports scholars whose work bridges disciplines and contributes to the great and growing mosaic of law and society scholarship. Events by Baldy affiliated faculty cover a broad array of topics including but not limited to human rights, courts, environmental governance, legal geography, international trade, intellectual property, social inequality, administrative regulation, state and urban government, the legal profession, family, religion, and cultural understandings of law.

We produce multimedia to expand access to research by our faculty and fellow recipients

The Baldy Center has moved online for Fall 2020. Social distancing and travel restrictions interrupted our normal dynamic, in-person talks, workshops, and conferences for the foreseeable future, but our community of scholars still are actively engaged in research and writing. We are pleased to announce three new online initiatives to bring their work to you, where ever you are.

The Baldy Center Blog

  • 2024-25 Blog Posts
    12/17/24
    The Baldy Center Blog features interdisciplinary perspectives on research and current events from UB scholars and others whose work intersects with law, legal institutions, and social policy. On this page you will find blog posts for the Fall 2024-season.
  • 2023-24 Blog Posts
    11/6/23
    The Baldy Center Blog features interdisciplinary perspectives on research and current events from UB scholars whose work intersects with law, legal institutions, and social policy. 
  • 2022-23 Blog Posts
    10/4/22
    The Baldy Center Blog features interdisciplinary perspectives on research and current events from UB scholars and others whose work intersects with law, legal institutions, and social policy. 
  • 2021-22 Blog Posts
    8/31/21
    The Baldy Center Blog features interdisciplinary perspectives on research and current events from UB scholars whose work intersects with law, legal institutions, and social policy. New blogs are generally released twice a month during each semester.
  • 2020-21 Blog Posts
    8/31/20
    The Baldy Center Blog features interdisciplinary perspectives on research and current events from interdisciplinary UB scholars whose work intersects with law, legal institutions, and social policy. New blogs are generally released twice a month during each semester.

The Baldy Center Podcast

  • 2024-2025 Podcast Episodes
    12/9/24
    The Baldy Center Podcast highlights UB faculty research and perspectives on current issues and events. We focus on UB's interdisciplinary scholars of law, legal institutions, and social policy.
  • 2023-2024 Podcast Episodes
    11/14/24
    The 2023-2024 edition of The Baldy Center Podcast features episodes with interdisciplinary scholars of law, legal institutions, and social policy. Guests include: Theophilus Edwin Coleman; Melissa Crouch; Helen “Nellie” Drew; Greta LaFleur; Rebecca R. French and Mark A. Nathan; Paul Linden-Retek; Athena Mutua; Kate Nelischer; and Mihreteab Taye.  
  • 2022-2023 Podcast Episodes
    11/14/24
    The 2022-2023 edition of The Baldy Center Podcast features episodes with interdisciplinary scholars of law, legal institutions, and social policy. Guests include: Shaun Marq Anderson, Samantha Barbas, Claire Cameron, Jorge M. Farinacci-Fernós, and Judith Olin.
  • 2021-2022 Podcast Episodes
    7/28/20
    The 2021-2022 edition of The Baldy Center Podcast features episodes with interdisciplinary scholars of law, legal institutions, and social policy. Guests include: Samantha Barbas; Anya Bernstein;  Helen Drew; Jordan Fox Besek; Matthew Dimick, Daniel Brantes Ferreira; Devonya Havis; David Herzberg; Rachael K. Hinkle; John Schlegel, Victoria Wolcott; and Seth Parker Woods.
  • 2020-2021 Podcast Episodes
    7/28/20
    The Fall 2020 episodes of The Baldy Center Podcast offer insight from Mark Bartholomew (UB Law), Irus Braverman (UB Law), Amanda Hughett (former Baldy Center Fellow), David Herzberg (UB History), Jennifer Gaynor (Baldy Center) and others. The Spring 2021 episodes include faculty discussing research about: Nurse-Initiated Protocols in Emergency Departments; Tacit Racism; Urban Renewal and School Reform; Harm Reduction; Law, Class and Racial Capitalism on ClassCrits, the opiod crisis; and, the Alison Des Forges International Symposium, among other topics. 

The Baldy Center Magazine

  • Fall 2020 Magazine
    8/8/23
    Welcome to the Fall 2020 edition of The Baldy Center Magazine, our inaugural issue. The Baldy Center, along with many others around the world, shifted to remote work in March 2020. The months since have offered challenges to us all, as we adapt to virtual research, online engagement, and socially distanced lives. The Baldy Center's past and present fellows and grant recipients have demonstrated their resilience throughout, adapting and advancing their important research in these changing and unusual times. We invite you to learn about their cutting-edge work at the intersection of law, legal institutions, and social policy in our virtual magazine.
  • Spring 2021 Magazine
    8/8/23
    Welcome to the Spring 2021 edition of The Baldy Center Magazine. The past academic year has been a challenging time for all of us, as we’ve adapted to virtual research, online engagement, and socially distanced lives.
  • Fall 2021 Magazine
    8/8/23
    Welcome to the Fall 2021 edition of The Baldy Center Magazine. As we begin the third academic year impacted by the pandemic, we in The Baldy Center are witnessing extraordinary resilience from the scholars linked to our center, who continue to advance their research focusing on critical problems in law and society. 
  • Spring 2022 Magazine
    8/8/23
    The Baldy Center magazine highlights recent University at Buffalo research focusing on law and social policy themes. Global research has flourished this semester with the return of faculty and students to campus, and pandemic-delayed research programs reactivated with immense productivity here in The Baldy Center.

More about The Baldy Center

  • Welcome new faculty
    1/4/23
  • News and Notes
    12/20/24
    On this page you will find a listing of news, stories, and updates about the Baldy Center's activities, initiatives and accomplishments.
  • Our History
    7/9/24
    The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy was established in 1978 under a bequest from Buffalo attorney Christopher Baldy. A Buffalo native, Christopher Baldy graduated from the UB Law School in 1910. During his long and successful legal career, he was an active member of the Alumni Association and a member of the University Council from 1950 to 1959.
  • Indigenous Land Acknowledgement
    4/17/23
    We would like to acknowledge the land on which the University at Buffalo operates, which is the territory of the Seneca Nation, a member of the Haudenosaunee/Six Nations Confederacy. This territory is covered by The Dish with One Spoon Treaty of Peace and Friendship, a pledge to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. It is also covered by the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua, between the United States Government and the Six Nations Confederacy, which further affirmed Haudenosaunee land rights and sovereignty in the State of New York. Today, this region is still the home to the Haudenosaunee people, and we are grateful for the opportunity to live, work, and share ideas in this territory.
  • About the University
    9/7/22
    The University at Buffalo has three campuses: the North Campus in suburban Amherst, the South Campus on Main Street in a North Buffalo neighborhood and the growing Downtown Campus, encompassing several buildings in downtown Buffalo.
  • About Buffalo-Niagara
    12/16/21
    The Buffalo-Niagara region is a major metropolitan area with a diverse blend of communities, each with its own distinct character and all united in a rich panorama of life.
  • Contact Us
    9/3/24
    The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy is located in 511 O'Brian Hall, on the North Campus of the University at Buffalo, in Buffalo, New York.