1L Reading Groups—first launched in 2004 by then-Dean Elena Kagan—offer an extracurricular opportunity to meet in small groups with a professor and students to discuss readings or films related to a topic selected by the professor.
These groups seek to enhance the first-year experience in three distinct ways:
- Connecting 1Ls to a professor who, in addition to hosting the group, serves as the student’s faculty academic adviser;
- Enabling 1Ls to get to know students from outside their section in an informal setting; and
- Allowing 1Ls to choose to study a topic of interest in their first semester.
Check out what HLS faculty have said about the benefits of 1L Reading Groups:
“We hope [the 1L Reading Group program] offers students a chance to talk immediately about the kinds of topics that led them to be interested in law, and also to get to know some professors and hear how we think about issues of personal interest.” Professor Martha Minow
“The reading group topics are connected to areas the students may be interested in, and by having the reading group instructors serve and be advisors for the students, we’d be more likely to get a match between what a particular student’s interest is and what the faculty member’s expertise is. ” Professor I. Glenn Cohen
1Ls can sign up for reading groups in late August just before the start of the academic year. 1L Reading Groups are coordinated by the Office of Student Academic Affairs.