CSLR's next generation of academic leadership takes the helm |

New leadership is energizing the Center. Silas Allard (JD/MTS ‘11) joins CSLR as Harold J. Berman Senior Fellow in Law and Religion in addition to his role as associate director. Silas also serves as managing editor of the Journal of Law and Religion, working with five co-editors to build a keystone, peer-review international publication.

“We have the opportunity to build an exceptional, peer-reviewed journal that explores questions that cannot be neatly bifurcated between religious and secular in a complex, multi-layered, global conversation,” observed Allard. He is interested in the issue of immigration and how “our individual and community norms drive our national policy,” creating rich and diverse ethical conversations that resist being defined solely by the state.

Mark Goldfeder (LLM ‘12, SJD ‘13) comes in as Senior Fellow, director of students of law and religion and is teaching courses in religious liberty and comparative Jewish law. Last year Mark published 18 papers and made numerous presentations. He has created a law and religion internship; a law and religion externship; a law and religion society; and a law and religion blog. "We see the blog as a window into CSLR and a window out into the world,” said Goldfeder. “We want people to know about the good things that are being produced, examined and undertaken at the Center. Our students are a vital conduit for sharing that information."

Sara Toering (JD/MDiv) continues as Senior Fellow to the Project on Affordable Housing and Community Development and general counsel to the Center for Community Progress, a national non-profit founded by CSLR Founding Director Professor Frank S. Alexander.  Sara works with state and local governments throughout the country in land banking, code enforcement, tax foreclosure reform and other issues related to neighborhood stabilization. She looks forward to building the bench of lawyers passionate about public service who choose careers in service of local government and equitable

M. Christian Green (JD/PhD) stays on as Senior Fellow and will serve as both Book Review editor and co-editor of the Journal of Law and Religion. In the year ahead she is   working on three book manuscripts simultaneously—first, Religion, Rights, and Recognition of Identity: Reconciling Human Rights and Religious Pluralism,; second, Fatherhood and Feminism: Justice, Care, and Gender in the Family,; and third, Christian Marriage and Modern Marriage Law, editing a powerful interdisciplinary discussion of law, religion, and culture between her mentors Don S. Browning and John Witte. 

“The remarkable achievements of these CSLR leaders reflect the strength of their legal training, their academic passion and their desire to make a difference in the world,” said John Witte, Jr., CSLR’s director. “We are their champions and stand in awe of the breadth of service and intellectual endeavor in which they are engaged.”