This Friday, October 10, 2025, the Georgetown Center for the Constitution will welcome scholars from across the country to its Second Annual In-Person Research Fellows Conference — a daylong program dedicated to advancing in-progress constitutional scholarship.

Launched in 2024 by our Faculty Co-Director, Professor Stephanie Barclay, the Research Fellows Program is a two-year, non-residential fellowship designed to support early-career academics working on constitutional law. The program provides a platform for fellows to receive dedicated commentary from senior scholars with deep expertise in their fields and to build meaningful connections with both junior and senior constitutional law scholars.

At this year’s in-person conference, six of our twenty-eight Research Fellows will share original works in progress — ranging from book proposals to law review articles — and engage in rigorous discussion and feedback from the full cohort and top scholars in their areas:

• Eleonora Bottini — At the Heart of Power: Supreme Courts as Guardians of the Right to Vote
  – Commentary by Richard Pildes (NYU School of Law)

• Samuel Merchant — Sentencing at the Founding
  – Commentary by Michael Klarman (Harvard Law School)

• Raphael Grenier-Benoit — Adjudication and the Justification of Constitutional Authority
  – Commentary by Lawrence Solum (University of Virginia School of Law)

• Angela Wu Howard — Religious Exceptions and the Art of Good Governance
  – Commentary by Alexander Tsesis (Florida State University College of Law)

• Lael Weinberger — Churches and the Transformation of Corporations as Nonstate Actors
  – Commentary by Kellen Funk (Columbia Law School)

• Gabrielle Girgis — Establishment Clause Interpretation After Kennedy
  – Commentary by Mark Storslee (University of North Carolina School of Law)

The Research Fellows Program was created to nurture and amplify the work of rising scholars in constitutional theory, providing space for rigorous academic exchange and mentorship. The Center’s fellows have published influential law review articles, been cited by the United States Supreme Court and high courts abroad, and helped shape key scholarly conversations about the Constitution.

The Center is excited to continue leading this important effort and to showcase the remarkable work being done by our Research Fellows.