The University of Michigan Law School has long been known as a top training ground for future law professors. Carrying on the tradition are three recent academic fellows who have secured full-time professorships in law schools around the country starting this fall.
Two of the three were part of the Michigan Faculty Fellows program, which hires emerging scholars essentially as professors-in-training. They gain experience in teaching and research while becoming embedded in the Michigan Law and broader University of Michigan communities.
Ekow N. Yankah, associate dean for faculty and research, describes the goals of the program as threefold: providing an on-ramp into the legal academy for young scholars, bringing new energy and ideas to the Michigan Law faculty, and extending the reach of the Michigan Law philosophy.
“We would like to think—in a decade, when people look at the collection of young academics that came out of the Michigan Faculty Fellows—that there’s some thread that ties them together: a scholarliness, thoughtfulness, an ability to be rigorous but generous, and an ability to get to the heart of the problem,” Yankah said.
“We hope to create a small cadre of scholars who are indelibly marked by Michigan Law.”
Although similar fellowships have become fairly common among top law schools, Yankah—the Thomas M Cooley Professor of Law—said Michigan Law’s fellowship program stands out because of its deep-seated collegiality.
“Here, the precision and attention with which our faculty will dive into the work of even the youngest scholars, the way people read their work so closely, marks the way that many people experience Michigan,” he said. “People just don’t stand on hierarchy here. The fellows are very much treated as academics.
“Michigan has such a broad and interdisciplinary faculty within the Law School—and one of the most remarkable universities outside the Law School,” Yankah added. “Given this faculty, there will be people who can support you no matter what you do. You’ll become the best version of the scholar you can be.”
About the fellows
Alma Diamond
Alma Diamond, a Michigan Faculty Fellow, has accepted a position as an assistant professor with the University of Texas School of Law.
“When I arrived, I had no idea how much the Michigan Faculty Fellowship would shape me,” Diamond said.
“Beyond the robust support on the job market, it gave me room to discover what kind of scholar I want to be and embedded me in a truly remarkable intellectual community.”
Diamond previously taught as a lecturer at three law schools, most recently the University of Chicago.
She holds an LLM and a JSD from New York University Law School. She also earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and an LLM from Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
Austin Nelson
Austin Nelson, also a Michigan Faculty Fellow, has accepted a position with the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law as an assistant professor.
Nelson said, “The advice and support of Michigan Law’s world-class faculty were invaluable during my job search.”
Before coming to Michigan Law, Nelson served as a clerk for then-Chief Judge Lavenski Smith on the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
He earned a JD and a PhD in government from the University of Texas. He also holds a BA from Hendrix College and a master’s in public policy and administration from Baylor University.
He recently won the best dissertation award from the American Political Thought section of the American Political Science Association.
Matt Blaszczyk
Matt Blaszczyk, who served as a fellow with the Law School’s Law and Mobility Program, has accepted a position as an assistant professor at the University of Georgia School of Law.
Blaszczyk said, “My research fellowship at Michigan gave me the time and intellectual community to develop my research agenda in ways that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.”
Before coming to Michigan Law, Blaszczyk was a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich and served as a judicial intern at the US Court of Federal Claims and as a law clerk at the US Copyright Office.
He holds an LLM from Georgetown University Law Center and an LLB from the Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London.