Austin Sarat
Austin Sarat is interested broadly in the cultural and social life of American law. He is currently pursuing several lines of research, among are the American values and beliefs revealed by state killings. Sarat uses the death penalty as a lens through which to view ideas about responsibility and blame, pain and its proper uses, race and fairness, mercy and the possibilities of redemption. Sarat recently completed a book-length study of the decline of executive clemency in capital cases and a study of race and capital punishment in the United States.
Sarat's research also focuses on the cultural life of law or law in popular culture. He is now writing a book entitled Hollywood’s Law: What Movies Do for Democracy. This book examines movies about law from 1950 to 2000 in order to understand how these films contribute to the development of democratic citizenship.
At Amherst College, Sarat teaches an introduction to Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought and a first-year Seminar, Secrets and Lies, and a class about murder.
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Nothing good or bad – but treason makes it so
How can there be hocus pocus/ When all I did was mental focus?
The climate movement was built for a world before climate change—it’s time for a...
We need a mass movement that can deal with climate disasters by training people to both protect and mobilize their communities.
‘Catastrophic’: Arizona judge allows 1864 abortion ban to go into effect
"No archaic law should dictate our reproductive freedom," said one rights advocate.
Connecting the dots between climate devastation and fossil fuel profits
As Pakistan drowns, as Puerto Rico is cast into darkness, and as Jacksonians remain thirsty, it’s past time for a climate tax on fossil fuel companies.
Wildfire smoke is reversing U.S. air pollution gains, study finds
“At the end of the day, the best type of policy is to proactively prevent these big fires in the first place.”