By Bob Needham
Michigan Law
The Michigan Law community welcomes four new research and teaching fellows to the faculty this fall, bringing diverse backgrounds in taxation, history, regulation, and beyond.
Three of the new arrivals will serve under the Law School’s Michigan Faculty Fellows program, while the fourth is part of the University’s Michigan Society of Fellows.
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Michigan Faculty Fellows
Michigan Faculty Fellows essentially work as professors-in-training, gaining experience in teaching and research while becoming embedded in the Michigan Law and broader University of Michigan communities for a two-year term.
“Fellows bring in a tremendous amount of talent and potential, as well as energy, into our halls,” Associate Dean for Faculty and Research Ekow Yankah says. “At the same time, they allow faculty members to recall all those who supported us along our career paths and pay that forward in turn. We do so hoping to imbue into the next generation of academics the rigor, scholarliness, broad thinking, and collegiality that are unique to Michigan Law and hope they carry it with them wherever they go.”
Amanda Leon’s research and teaching interests focus on international income taxation and environmental taxation.
She dates her initial interest in the law back to reading a John Grisham novel in fifth grade, but after earning a BBA at Notre Dame, she started her career at a Big Four accounting firm and obtained her certified public accountant (CPA) license.
Working in the state and local taxation group alongside both CPAs and JDs reaffirmed her fascination with the law, and she went on to earn her JD at the University of Virginia. She then practiced international taxation and tax controversy at a boutique tax law firm in Washington, DC, and most recently worked as a tax treaty analyst for the Internal Revenue Service.
Leon’s research examines questions regarding jurisdiction to tax, multilateral cooperation, and interpretation, particularly considering the borderless economy and climate. “I’m excited to be able to fully devote my time to researching, writing, and teaching about topics and issues that I’ve long thought about while practicing thanks to this wonderful fellowship offered by Michigan Law,” she says.
“If working before law school taught me anything, it’s that sometimes the less direct route can enhance and inform your future studies and work in unexpected and valuable ways,” she says. “I’m confident my route to academia will similarly enhance my scholarship and teaching. I hope to use my prior experience to contribute meaningfully to my students’ learning and to academic life here more broadly. Getting to be a part of this community is something that I really look forward to and don’t take for granted.”
Edgar Melgar’s research examines how the regulatory state interacts with marginalized and disenfranchised communities, from a historical, contemporary, and comparative perspective. But his journey to legal academia was also not a direct route.
He earned a BA in literature at Yale, followed by an MA in Hispanic studies from the University of Pennsylvania. “Then I started a PhD focusing on the history of the Middle East and Latin America, comparing the origins of technocracy—this idea that scientific experts can shed light on how society should be governed,” he says. “From that comparative perspective, I thought, why don’t I try to understand how this operates in the US?” That led to a return to Yale for his JD.
Following two clerkships in the US Court of Appeals—for the Second Circuit and the District of Columbia Circuit—and a year working in government, Melgar decided to focus on academia.
“It’s a really special and unique setting that encourages you to be constantly learning—either from your colleagues from the world around you or from the students that you work with,” he says.
In particular, he looks forward to the possibilities afforded by the Michigan Faculty Fellows program. “It’s an incredibly stimulating opportunity,” he says. “Great faculty, great students, great state. From the beginning, the faculty have been very kind, very generous with their time, their insights, and their thoughts.”
Like his new colleagues, Andrew Stawasz did not initially plan on a career in the law. He earned a BS in industrial labor relations from Cornell University, then took a research role in an economic consulting firm.
He earned his JD at Harvard, then worked for the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law. Most recently he clerked in the US Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.
“When I decided to go to law school, I quickly fell in with the administrative law and federal benefit cost analysis side of things. I also discovered in law school a twin passion for animal law. So a lot of my work sits at the intersection of how animals’ interests ought to be and can be reflected in economic analysis,” he says.
As a Michigan Faculty Fellow, he values the opportunity to grow into an academic role. “The freedom to think your own thoughts and write about them is very appealing,” he says. “The legal academy allows you to pursue those interests. And the opportunity to work with and learn from students is really attractive.
“I’ve seen great professors as a student and I’ve interacted with them when I was at NYU, but being a great professor hasn’t been my job. Until now.”
—————
Michigan Society of Fellows
Founded in 1970, the University-wide society provides financial and intellectual support to individuals selected for professional promise and interdisciplinary interests.
Fellows are chosen for the importance and quality of their scholarship and their interest in interdisciplinary work. They will teach in their affiliated departments and continue their research.
Aabid Allibhai is one of six new members chosen by the Michigan Society of Fellows out of more than 860 applicants to serve three-year appointments as postdoctoral fellows and non-tenure-track assistant professors.
Allibhai earned a bachelor’s degree at McGill University, followed by a JD and PhD from Harvard. He studies how people without political power influence law and politics.
The project he will pursue at Michigan is “Belinda Sutton’s World: Everyday Life, Legal Claims, and Political Activism in Early Black New England.” Sutton was enslaved in Boston in the 1700s and eventually emancipated through her enslaver’s will. In 1783 she petitioned a Massachusetts court, arguing for a pension from the estate—one of the first cases of reparations from the slave trade.
“Belinda Sutton’s petition is the anchor for a project that explores the legal, political, and intellectual worlds of enslaved Bostonians in the revolutionary period,” Allibhai says. “There was a Black abolitionist movement undertaken by enslaved and formerly enslaved people that pushed a lot of politicians to adopt an anti-slavery stance. The petition opens up this whole world—that has been very under-explored and under-researched—of Black legal activism. That’s what I hope to uncover.”
Allibhai especially looks forward to the interdisciplinary approach of the Michigan Society of Fellows. “We have great legal historians here from whom I can learn a lot. But at the same time I’m working with people who are top students in their fields, in the physical sciences, in English, in history, in a variety of subjects,” he notes.
“I just love being around smart, interesting people who are interested in very different things than I am, but are very passionate about it. I think that’s the best way to learn about the world.”
Michigan Law
The Michigan Law community welcomes four new research and teaching fellows to the faculty this fall, bringing diverse backgrounds in taxation, history, regulation, and beyond.
Three of the new arrivals will serve under the Law School’s Michigan Faculty Fellows program, while the fourth is part of the University’s Michigan Society of Fellows.
—————
Michigan Faculty Fellows
Michigan Faculty Fellows essentially work as professors-in-training, gaining experience in teaching and research while becoming embedded in the Michigan Law and broader University of Michigan communities for a two-year term.
“Fellows bring in a tremendous amount of talent and potential, as well as energy, into our halls,” Associate Dean for Faculty and Research Ekow Yankah says. “At the same time, they allow faculty members to recall all those who supported us along our career paths and pay that forward in turn. We do so hoping to imbue into the next generation of academics the rigor, scholarliness, broad thinking, and collegiality that are unique to Michigan Law and hope they carry it with them wherever they go.”
Amanda Leon’s research and teaching interests focus on international income taxation and environmental taxation.
She dates her initial interest in the law back to reading a John Grisham novel in fifth grade, but after earning a BBA at Notre Dame, she started her career at a Big Four accounting firm and obtained her certified public accountant (CPA) license.
Working in the state and local taxation group alongside both CPAs and JDs reaffirmed her fascination with the law, and she went on to earn her JD at the University of Virginia. She then practiced international taxation and tax controversy at a boutique tax law firm in Washington, DC, and most recently worked as a tax treaty analyst for the Internal Revenue Service.
Leon’s research examines questions regarding jurisdiction to tax, multilateral cooperation, and interpretation, particularly considering the borderless economy and climate. “I’m excited to be able to fully devote my time to researching, writing, and teaching about topics and issues that I’ve long thought about while practicing thanks to this wonderful fellowship offered by Michigan Law,” she says.
“If working before law school taught me anything, it’s that sometimes the less direct route can enhance and inform your future studies and work in unexpected and valuable ways,” she says. “I’m confident my route to academia will similarly enhance my scholarship and teaching. I hope to use my prior experience to contribute meaningfully to my students’ learning and to academic life here more broadly. Getting to be a part of this community is something that I really look forward to and don’t take for granted.”
Edgar Melgar’s research examines how the regulatory state interacts with marginalized and disenfranchised communities, from a historical, contemporary, and comparative perspective. But his journey to legal academia was also not a direct route.
He earned a BA in literature at Yale, followed by an MA in Hispanic studies from the University of Pennsylvania. “Then I started a PhD focusing on the history of the Middle East and Latin America, comparing the origins of technocracy—this idea that scientific experts can shed light on how society should be governed,” he says. “From that comparative perspective, I thought, why don’t I try to understand how this operates in the US?” That led to a return to Yale for his JD.
Following two clerkships in the US Court of Appeals—for the Second Circuit and the District of Columbia Circuit—and a year working in government, Melgar decided to focus on academia.
“It’s a really special and unique setting that encourages you to be constantly learning—either from your colleagues from the world around you or from the students that you work with,” he says.
In particular, he looks forward to the possibilities afforded by the Michigan Faculty Fellows program. “It’s an incredibly stimulating opportunity,” he says. “Great faculty, great students, great state. From the beginning, the faculty have been very kind, very generous with their time, their insights, and their thoughts.”
Like his new colleagues, Andrew Stawasz did not initially plan on a career in the law. He earned a BS in industrial labor relations from Cornell University, then took a research role in an economic consulting firm.
He earned his JD at Harvard, then worked for the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law. Most recently he clerked in the US Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.
“When I decided to go to law school, I quickly fell in with the administrative law and federal benefit cost analysis side of things. I also discovered in law school a twin passion for animal law. So a lot of my work sits at the intersection of how animals’ interests ought to be and can be reflected in economic analysis,” he says.
As a Michigan Faculty Fellow, he values the opportunity to grow into an academic role. “The freedom to think your own thoughts and write about them is very appealing,” he says. “The legal academy allows you to pursue those interests. And the opportunity to work with and learn from students is really attractive.
“I’ve seen great professors as a student and I’ve interacted with them when I was at NYU, but being a great professor hasn’t been my job. Until now.”
—————
Michigan Society of Fellows
Founded in 1970, the University-wide society provides financial and intellectual support to individuals selected for professional promise and interdisciplinary interests.
Fellows are chosen for the importance and quality of their scholarship and their interest in interdisciplinary work. They will teach in their affiliated departments and continue their research.
Aabid Allibhai is one of six new members chosen by the Michigan Society of Fellows out of more than 860 applicants to serve three-year appointments as postdoctoral fellows and non-tenure-track assistant professors.
Allibhai earned a bachelor’s degree at McGill University, followed by a JD and PhD from Harvard. He studies how people without political power influence law and politics.
The project he will pursue at Michigan is “Belinda Sutton’s World: Everyday Life, Legal Claims, and Political Activism in Early Black New England.” Sutton was enslaved in Boston in the 1700s and eventually emancipated through her enslaver’s will. In 1783 she petitioned a Massachusetts court, arguing for a pension from the estate—one of the first cases of reparations from the slave trade.
“Belinda Sutton’s petition is the anchor for a project that explores the legal, political, and intellectual worlds of enslaved Bostonians in the revolutionary period,” Allibhai says. “There was a Black abolitionist movement undertaken by enslaved and formerly enslaved people that pushed a lot of politicians to adopt an anti-slavery stance. The petition opens up this whole world—that has been very under-explored and under-researched—of Black legal activism. That’s what I hope to uncover.”
Allibhai especially looks forward to the interdisciplinary approach of the Michigan Society of Fellows. “We have great legal historians here from whom I can learn a lot. But at the same time I’m working with people who are top students in their fields, in the physical sciences, in English, in history, in a variety of subjects,” he notes.
“I just love being around smart, interesting people who are interested in very different things than I am, but are very passionate about it. I think that’s the best way to learn about the world.”
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