JULIE KALISH

INSTITUTE FOR WRITING AND RHETORIC

FAVORITE BOOK TO TEACH:

Griswold v. Connecticut, a Supreme Court case

MUST-READ BOOK IN YOUR FIELD:

The United States Constitution, by We, the People of the United States and a handful of other guys

FAVORITE PLEASURE READS:

Beloved, by Toni Morrison

Call it Sleep, by Henry Roth

The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling

CURRENTLY READING:

The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama

The Complete Works of Isaac Babel Democracy in America, by Alexis De Tocqueville

I love teaching Griswold for all of its concurring opinions, and Roe v. Wade for its highly unusual historical portion and systematic constitutional analysis. I like that students have heard of Roe v. Wade, but almost none has actually read it; they are often surprised by what's really said in the opinion. Supreme Court cases are the most fun to teach because they tend to be about really interesting questions that are societally and personally important to students, and they are pure argument-there's no right and wrong answer; there's merely argument, every piece of which is up for rhetorical analysis and debate. You can teach absolutely everything using these cases: writing, logic, argumentation, rhetoric, social issues, substantive law, ethics, government responsibility, and theory of law and government and on and on.