Elisabeth A. Cawthon, Ph.D.

Students fear that law is self-satisfied, complicated and perhaps irrelevant--a "system of wheels within wheels." I try to demystify and humanize legal history through role playing. Who better to explain England's Official Secrets Act than James Bond, untangle the Statute of Mortmain than Edward I, assess the Norman Conquest than an artisan who made the Bayeux Tapestry or depict Tyburn than Moll Cutpurse? Legal history can range from gruesome to silly, but I aim for it never to be boring.