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Jill Fraley

W&L Law’s Fraley Receives Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grant to Turkey

Jill Fraley, associate professor of law at Washington and Lee University, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grant to conduct research at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey during the 2019–20 academic year.

During her Fulbright, Fraley will conduct research on the development of international manufacturing trade by expat Americans living in Turkey in the first part of the Twentieth Century.

“This is a point in time when American trade was switching from raw natural resources to manufactured goods and was also a point of extraordinary growth of the international market,” says Fraley. “My current research project focuses on documenting and exploring how the trade boom did or did not change how Americans understood property and natural resources.”

A legal historian who focuses her research on property and environmental issues, Fraley was previously awarded a Fulbright to Ireland, where she researched England’s colonization of Scotland and Ireland to explore how Great Britain transported its own property law system as it expanded to other territories, including North America.

Fraley is a graduate of Yale University, where she completed dual programs in History and Religious Studies. She received her J.D. from Duke University, after which she practiced law for more than six years, working primarily in toxic torts and premises liability. She eventually returned to the academy, receiving an LL.M. and a J.S.D. from Yale Law School.

Fraley has taught at the University of Kentucky, the University of Kentucky Law School and Yale Law School. At W&L, she teaches property, environmental law, law & geography and legal history. Her recent writings focus on waste law and nuisance law. Her previous research includes the legal history of Appalachia, property, cartography and the development of territorial jurisdiction.

The Fulbright Program is America’s flagship international educational exchange program, and is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grants are viewed as among the most prestigious appointments in the Fulbright Scholar Program.