Ben Madison, an Associate Professor in the Law School, recently learned he was among the winners of a call for papers on the topic of “New Law Faculty as Catalysts for Change.” This competition was sponsored by the New Law Faculty Section of the American Association of Law Schools. As a result, he has been invited to present his paper at the association’s national meeting to be held in January 2008 in New York City.“One of our primary goals at Regent is to engage the world,” Madison noted, “and I saw this as an opportunity to do that.” The article challenges legal academia to examine its approach to education. “The article seeks to force those involved in legal education to reexamine everything about our approach. Fortunately, I have colleagues at Regent who are not afraid to do that.”
Madison acknowledged that the collaborative approach of his colleagues inspires him to write and speak. His scholarship has focused not only on particular legal issues, but has also included work on educational theory, methods, and practices. As a result of engaging those issues, Madison has been invited to speak at various academic fora. This past summer, he spoke at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools’ annual conference on the topic of diverse learning styles of law students. He has been invited to speak at the same conference next summer on the topic of innovative teaching methods. Moreover, Carolina Academic Press has contracted with Madison to prepare a textbook that incorporates many of the educational methods he has used in teaching law.