Town Hall: Austin Sarat – Political Scientist, Author, and Teacher “Four Trials That Changed America”

Austin Sarat is Associate Dean of the Faculty and the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College. He is also the Hugo L. Black Visiting Senior Faculty Scholar at the University of Alabama School of Law. Dr. Sarat earned a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin and a J.D. from Yale University Law School. At Amherst, Dr. Sarat founded both the Department of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought and the Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities. A well-known author, teacher, and researcher, Dr. Sarat is also a pioneer in the development of legal study in the liberal arts, and the humanistic and cultural study of law. Dr. Sarat’s primary research interest is the use of the death penalty. His teaching has been featured in the New York Times and NPR’s Fresh Air, and one profile noted he is “one of the best loved professors at Amherst College.” Dr. Sarat has authored or edited more than 90 books including Mercy on Trial: What It Means to Stop an Execution, and is currently writing Hollywood’s Law: Film, Fatherhood, and the Legal Imagination. His writing has appeared in The Boston Globe and the Daily Beast, and he has been a commentator or guest on ABC World News Tonight, Al Jazeera America, The O’Reilly Factor, and NPR’s All Things Considered.