A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.

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Michael Dorf

Professor, Adjunct

Contact

Bio

BA, Political Science, The University of Chicago; JD, School of Law of Columbia University. Concurrent positions: Partner, Adducci, Dorf, Lehner, Mitchell, & Blankenship, P.C. Election Law Counsel to campaigns of many current and former candidates and officials including Barack Obama, Alexi Giannoulias, Robin Kelly, Raja Krishnamoorthi and others. Formerly: Legal Affairs Consultant; President's Independent Commission on the National Endowment for the Arts; Director, The Chicago Cultural Plan; Board Member: Illinois Community College Board, Lawyers for the Creative Arts, Arts Alliance Illinois; Humanities Illinois. Member of Bar, Illinois and the District of Columbia.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

Law, Politics And The Arts provides the student with an understanding of the legal system and the political process as they relate to the arts. The first part of the course is a survey of the American legal system and laws affecting artists and arts organizations, including topics such as contracts, corporations, copyrights, and First Amendment issues. The second part of the course explores the philosophical foundations and the practical experience of the relationship of government and the political process to the arts, with an emphasis on advocacy and the skills to change the rules.

Readings will include judicial opinions, legislation, and excerpts from both fiction and non-fiction works. We will look at US Supreme Court rulings on the limits of the First Amendment as well as statutes protecting artists from hazardous paints and unscrupulous gallery owners. Readings are selected to be accessible to the general reader.

Assignments include weekly readings, both within the syllabus and those brought in by students readings, several quizzes, and two written assignments including a practical advocacy project.

Class Number

1886

Credits

3