Thursday, May 21, 2009

So, have I missed anything?

Jim Milles here--founder and absentee landlord of this blog. Marie and Betsy are travelling over the next week, so this is as good a time as any for me to suit up and start blogging here again.

When I started this blog, I was Director of the Law Library and Professor of Law at University at Buffalo Law School. My friends already know that last December I resigned my administrative position as Law Librarian to focus on teaching and scholarship.

This semester I taught my first real law course: Law of Internet Speech. It was a small class, and only two credit hours. (UB Law has a unique "block" scheduling option: courses can be built in one-month blocks in addition to the traditional semester-long class. My course ran March and April, Blocks 6 and 7.) I was scrambling all semester to stay ahead of the students, and I'm grateful to my students for their forbearance and flexibility. For me, it gave me the opportunity to discover which areas held the most interest for me and to refine my course plans for the future.

This summer I'm studying--and preparing for four new courses next year. In the Fall I'm teaching Electronic Discovery. For the Spring, I'll be teaching a course on Information Privacy Law and a seminar on Cultural and Legal Issues in Cyberspace Law. In future Springs, I plan to replace the Cyberspace seminar with seminar on Journalism, Democracy and Law. I expect to do blog posts in each of these areas as my study and research continues.

The odd course out in the Fall semester is one I'm co-teaching with my colleague Stephanie Phillips: Religion, Spirituality, and Cognitive Science: Contemporary Establishment Clause Issues. This should be a fun change from the cyberspace and technology focus of my other courses.

It's good to be back. Talk to you soon.

1 comment:

Betsy McKenzie said...

Hey, Jim, what a fascinating bunch of classes! The e-discovery class should be very interesting. I am interested in getting involved in the TREK group that is working on e-discovery search techniques. I'll be interested in talking with you as you learn more in your course!And the law & religion class sounds very cool & right up your alley! Best wishes & thank you again for helping out with OOTJ!