Call for Papers: the Berkeley Law-Cornell ILR Junior Work Law Scholars Conference, 17 September 2026
All Law Is Work Law: The 2026 UC Berkeley/Cornell ILR Junior Work Law Scholars Conference
Thursday, September 17, 2026, 9am-6pm
@ UC Berkeley School of Law**
UC Berkeley School of Law and Cornell ILR School are thrilled to welcome your submissions for the 2026 Junior Work Law Scholars Conference to be held in Berkeley, CA, on September 17, 2026.
The theme of the 2026 Junior Work Law Scholars Conference is All Law is Work Law. As such, we invite scholars who may not think of themselves as traditional “work law” scholars to join the conversation through papers that address work law at its intersection with another area of legal regulation. We welcome such boundary-challenging submissions from junior scholars, broadly defined to include graduate students (including law students interested in an academic career and/or with substantial works in progress), practitioners interested in transitioning to academia, as well as junior professors who have not yet been awarded tenure and/or have been in an academic position for less than 10 years.
Participants will receive individualized feedback from senior scholars, carefully selected for their interdisciplinary approach and their commitment to mentorship. Already confirmed commentators include: Samuel Bagenstos (Michigan), Noah Zatz (UCLA), Leticia Saucedo (Davis), Cheryl Harris (UCLA), and David Webber (Boston), with more to come! You will also receive comments from fellow junior scholars, and advice about career development and journal placement from colleagues and law review editors.
Interested participants should fill this form by June 15. Decisions will be announced in early July, and a full draft is due no later than September 4, 2026. Stipends from Cornell ILR School are available to assist with travel expenses, and will be distributed based on financial needs.
Please reach out to Diana Reddy (dsreddy@berkeley.edy), Gali Racabi (gracabi@cornell.edu), or Yiran Zhang (yiranzhang@cornell.edu) if you have any questions.
We hope to see you in Cali this Fall!
Diana Reddy, Gali Racabi & Yiran Zhang
**The Juniors Conference has been scheduled to immediately precede the 2026 Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law (COSELL), the leading work law conference in the United States, which is also being held at UC Berkeley School of Law, Friday, September 18 – Saturday, September 19, 2026. We hope junior scholars will consider applying to both conferences, and that COSELL attendees will consider arriving a day early to provide additional support and feedback at junior workshops. Please note that the Junior Scholars Conference and COSELL have separate application processes and deadlines. Selections for the Junior Scholars Conference will be based both on quality and thematic fit. COSELL has no thematic preference. For COSELL registration details and to sign up, please visit: https://cosellaw.org/index.html.
For more details, refer here
