CFP: Ninth Junior Faculty Forum on Law and STEM

Call for Papers

Ninth Junior Faculty Forum on Law and STEM

 

Stanford Law School, November 6-7, 2026

 

The Northwestern, Penn, and Stanford law schools are pleased to announce a Call for Papers for the Ninth Junior Faculty Forum on Law and STEM, which will be held at Stanford on November 6-7, 2026. The Forum is dedicated to interdisciplinary scholarship focusing on the intersection of Law and Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (STEM). We are seeking submissions from junior faculty in any discipline interested in presenting papers at the Forum. The submission deadline is June 15, 2026.

 

A group of junior scholars will be chosen on a blind basis from among those submitting papers by a jury of accomplished scholars with expertise in Law and STEM. One or more senior scholars, not necessarily from Northwestern, Penn, and Stanford, will comment on each paper. The audience will include the participating junior faculty, faculty from the host institutions, and invited guests. Participating junior faculty are expected to stay for the full duration of the Forum.

 

Our goal is to promote interdisciplinary research exploring how developments in STEM are affecting law and vice versa. Preference will be given to papers with strong interdisciplinary approaches integrating these two areas of study.

 

We invite submissions on any topic related to the intersection of law and any STEM field. Potential topics include (but are not limited to):

• Artificial intelligence
• Autonomous vehicles
• Biomedical research and drug development
• Biometrics
• Bitcoin and other blockchain technologies
• ChatGPT and large language models
• Climate change technologies
• Computational law and algorithmic decisionmaking
• Cryptocurrency and NFTs
• Digital health and health data
• Genetics, epigenetics, and gene editing
• Machine learning and predictive analytics
• Nanotechnology
• Neuroscience and law
• Online security and privacy
• Personalized medicine
• Regulation of online platforms
• Robotics
• Spectrum policy
• Synthetic biology
• Virtual and augmented reality

 

There is no publication commitment. Northwestern, Penn, and Stanford will cover presenters’ and commentators’ travel expenses, though international flights may be only partially reimbursed. Authors of accepted papers are expected to attend the conference and present their work in person.

 

QUALIFICATIONS: To be eligible, authors must be teaching at a U.S. school of higher education in a tenured or tenure-track position or as a Visiting Assistant Professor or Fellow and must have received their first tenure-track appointment no more than seven years before the conference. Authors in tenured and tenure-track positions will be given priority. American citizens or permanent residents teaching abroad are also eligible to submit provided that they have held a faculty position or the equivalent, including positions comparable to junior faculty positions in research institutions, for less than seven years, and that they earned their last degree within the past ten years. We accept jointly authored submissions so long as the presenting coauthor is individually eligible to participate in the Forum and none of the other coauthors has taught in a tenured or tenure-track position for more than seven years. Papers that will be published prior to the meeting are not eligible. Authors may submit only one paper.

 

PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE: Electronic submissions should be made through this website. Please remove all references to the author(s) in the paper. The submission deadline is June 15, 2026.  We will notify applicants as soon as practicable thereafter whether their papers have been selected.
https://forms.gle/PPPn823V1DmYwQvP6

 

Any questions about the submission procedure should be directed to Professor Lisa Ouellette (ouellette@law.stanford.edu).

 

FURTHER INFORMATION: Inquiries concerning the Forum should be sent to Lisa Ouellette at Stanford Law School, David Schwartz at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, or Christopher Yoo at University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.