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Events
Jun. 30 | 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies due
Jun. 30 | 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies Teaching, Advising, and Program Development due
Oct. 1 | Travel Grants for Graduate Students
For submission guidelines, click here
Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
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McNamara, Martha J. "Disciplining Justice: Massachusetts Courthouses and the Legal Profession, 1750-1850," American and New England Studies Program, Boston University, September 1994.
The construction of buildings devoted solely to judicial proceedings in Massachusetts paralleled the professionalization of the legal system during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This dissertation examines the development of courthouses as a new building type and their importance as a civic space in Massachusetts towns. In order to assess the significance of changing judicial settings, this study combines a formal analysis of the buildings with an examination of legal and architectural professionalization and an understanding of the role of ritual in courtroom proceedings and other public activities. When thus analyzed within their social context, Massachusetts courthouses can help to clarify the relationship of a changing judicial system to architecture, consolidated legal power, and ritualized usage of public spaces.
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