Lisa Hajjar
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Associate Professor & Department Chair, Law and Society
Personal Profile
My favorite activities include watching movies (I am a noir-aholic) and reading
magazines (I live for each new issue of The New Yorker). I have adapted to living
in beautiful Santa Barbara, but no amount of time will knock the east coast out
of me.
Research Interests
My main research interest is torture, along with war and conflict, and other forms
of violence. I began my academic career working on the Israeli military court system
in the West Bank and Gaza. Since 9/11, that background provided good preparation
to focus on the “war on terror.” The book I am writing analyzes the roles that lawyers
have played in contesting the “legalization” of torture by the Bush administration,
and their ongoing efforts to re-delegitimize the odious practice. My subjects include
military, human rights and private practice lawyers who have been involved, in various
ways, in representing detainees or bringing suits to challenge policies and practices
that violate international and federal laws.
Teaching Style
I love teaching undergraduates. Back in the last millennium, my first teaching job
was at Swarthmore College, where the students were super-overachieving workaholics
(they complained if faculty gave them too little reading). I was so nervous that
I used to write out lectures word-for-word, and my heart would pound every time
I entered a classroom. That baptism-by-fire made me a better teacher. Now I would
describe my teaching as intellectual “free styling.” I go into a class with a general
idea about what I want to cover and riff off of the important points to provide
information and historical, political and social context. Since I recently mastered
the art of power point, I have become a bit of a junkie; pictures and maps are very
beneficial for teaching, not only because they give students something to look at
other than the professor but, pardon the cliché, because a picture IS worth a thousand
words.
Idea of a Good Time
I am never very far from my academic interests, because they are so interesting
to me. A good time might be hanging out with friends—mostly other UCSB faculty—and
talking about torture. Occasionally I take walks on the beach and think about torture.
Most Important Thing to Learn at College
The most important thing to learn is the value of being confused. Not understanding
something can be a great motivation for opening your mind to new information and
new ideas.
Advice for New Students at UCSB
Take lots of courses across the board your first year and figure out what you really
love, and major in that. The more excited and inspired you are by a subject, be
it physics or music or sociology, the better you will do. The better you do, the
better chance you have to get into a good grad school. Don’t listen to your parents
if they try to push you into a “practical” major that does not excite you.
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