The research interests that have organized my writing goals reflect the three disciplinary focuses in which I work:

(1) Libraries and librarianship;

(2) Law and sexuality; and

(3) Legal Anthropology.

Although these projects are mutually enriching, they explore questions that benefit from the unique methodologies associated with the different academic disciplines. A connecting thread throughout, however, is a preference to support positions defended, to the extent possible, with the use of empirical data on-point to the question.

Professional Experience

2010-present     University of Kentucky College of Law, Library Director

2003-2010         University of Georgia School of Law Library, Faculty and Access Services Librarian

1991-1997          Tulane University School of Law Library, Librarian for Access Services

Representative Publications

Books/Book Chapters

University of Kentucky law library. (Forthcoming 2022). In Academic Law Library Structures: Past, Present, and Future (Beth Adelman & Jessica de Perio Wittman, eds., Hein).

The interim director in the academic law library. (Forthcoming 2022). In Interim Leadership in Libraries (Jennifer Knievel & Leslie Reynolds, eds., ACRL). Co-author: Billie Joe Kaufman.

Benefits, drawbacks, and risks of AI. (2020). In Law Librarianship in the Age of AI 131-144 (Elyssa Valenti, ed., ALA Editions).

Introduction: Why bibliography? (2018). In Sexual Orientation, Gender Identities, and the Law: A Research Bibliography xiii-xix (Dana Neacşu & David B. Holt, eds., Hein).

Reciprocity as a species of fairness: Completing Malinowski’s theory of law. (2016). In Bronislaw Malinowski's Concept of Law 83-106 (Mateusz Stępień, ed., Springer).

Introduction. (2015). In John M. Allegro, The Chosen People: A Study of Jewish History From the Time of the Exile Until the Revolt of Bar Kocheba (2nd ed., Piketon, OH: Rousseau, Etc.). [Kindle format only]

Introduction. (2013). In Bronislaw Malinowski, Crime and Custom in Savage Society 1-25 (Transaction Publishers).

Legal Anthropology: An Introduction (2008). (AltaMira Press).

Corporate domestic partner benefits. (2007). In Defending Same-Sex Marriage, Vol. 1: “Separate but Equal” No More 81-105 (Mark Strasser ed., Praeger).

Sexual Orientation and the Law: A Research Bibliography (Editor-in-chief). (2006). (AALL Publication Series No. 74, Buffalo, NY: Hein).

Anthropology and Law. (2003). (NY: Berghahn Press, 2003).  Co-author: H. Edwin Anderson.

Defining religion. (2003). In Selected Readings in the Anthropology of Religion: Theoretical and Methodological Essays 61-98 (Stephen D. Glazier & Charles A. Flowerday, eds., Praeger).

Multiple personality, hypnosis, and possession trance. (1996). In Yearbook of Cross-Cultural Medicine and Psychotherapy 1994, 99-112.

Homosexual, gay, and lesbian: Defining the words and sampling the populations. (1992). In Gay and Lesbian Studies 27-47 (Henry L. Minton ed., Haworth Press). 

Articles: Law Scholarship

Cross-cultural analogues for the UDHR: Ethnographic foundation for the identification of genuinely “human” rights. (In progress).

Limits of the rule of law: Negotiating Afghan “traditional” law in the international civil trials in the Czech Republic. (2021). 54 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 1123-1161. Co-author: Tomáš Ledvinka.

Academic law libraries and scholarship: Communication, publishing, and ranking. (2020). Journal of Law & Education 49(4): 433-485. Co-author: Dana Neacsu.

Too much, too soon? Obergefell as applied equality practice. (2019). Mississippi Law Journal 88(3):281-322. Co-author: Alyssa Oakley Milby.

Human rights: From legal transplants to fair translation. (2017). Wisconsin International Law Journal 34(3):475-534.

Half-baked: The demand by for-profit businesses for religious exemptions from selling to same-sex couples. (2016). Loyola Los Angeles Law Review 49(1): 39-118.

Law, legitimacy, and the maligned adverb. (2015). Mississippi College Law Review 33(3): 275-290.

The open access advantage for American law reviews. (2015). Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society 97(1): 4-25. Co-authors: Carol A. Watson; Caroline Osborne. Originally released in the JPTOS online journal, EDISON.

Tenure and the law library director. (2012). Journal of Legal Education 61(3): 406-434. Co-author: Kevin Shelton.

Citation advantage of open access legal scholarship. (2011). Law Library Journal 103: 553-573. Co-author: Carol A. Watson.

Why law? (Fall 2011). UK Law Notes 34.

Delimiting the culture defense. (2007). Quinnipiac Law Review [QLR] 26(1): 109-Co-author: John Stuart Garth.

“Anticipatory self-defense” and other stories. (2005). Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy 14(2): 487-523. Co-author: Jeanne M. Woods

Civilian immunity and the rebuttable presumption of innocence. (2004). Journal of Law in Society 5: 409-456.

Same-sex union announcements: Whether newspapers must publish them, and why we should care. (2003). Brooklyn Law Review 68(3): 721-807.

Same-sex union announcements: Precis on a not so picayune matter. (2003). Loyola Law Review 49: 171-213.

Rock-salting the slippery slope: Why same-sex marriage is not a commitment to polygamous marriage. (2002). Northern Kentucky Law Review 29(3): 521-590.

Casenote: Burdine v. Johnson – To sleep, perchance to get a new trial: Presumed prejudice arising from sleeping counsel. (2001). Loyola Law Review 47: 1585-1603.

Baby steps or one fell swoop?:  The incremental extension of rights is not a defensible strategy. (2001). California Western Law Review 38(1): 1-62.

An ethical argument to restrict domestic partnerships to same-sex couples. (1998). Law & Sexuality 8: 649-670.

DOMA: An unconstitutional establishment of fundamentalist Christianity. (1997). Michigan Journal of Gender & Law 4: 335-373

Restoring Free Exercise protections by limiting them: Preventing a repeat of Smith. (1996). Northern Illinois University Law Review 17: 1-49.

Do librarians deserve tenure? Casting an anthropological eye upon role definition within the law school. (1996). Law Library Journal 88(3): 382-401.

God is as God does: Law, anthropology, and the definition of “religion.” (1995). Seton Hall Constitutional Law Journal 6(1): 23-99.

A philosophical ground for gays’ rights: We must learn what is true in order to do what is right. (1993). George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal 4(1&2): 1-40.

Articles: Non-Law Scholarship

Grounding suicide terrorism in death anxiety and consumer capitalism. 44 Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review 1-42 (2021).

Leave the books on the shelves: Library space as intrinsic facilitator of the reading experience. (2020). Journal of Academic Librarianship 46(2): 102104 (7 pp.).

 Diversity: How is AALL doing? (2017). Law Library Journal 109(1): 7-50.

Order matters: Typology of dual-degreed law librarians. (2014). Legal Reference Services Quarterly 33(1): 1-37.

Becoming director: An internal candidate’s view. (2013). Library Management 34(3): 188-199. Co-author: Pat Newcombe

A library is not the books: An ethical obstacle to the digital library. (2012). Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society 10(2): 93-106.

Will an institutional repository hurt my SSRN ranking?: Calming the faculty fear. (2012). AALL Spectrum 16(6): 12-13+. Co-author: Carol A. Watson.

Libraries as doppelgängers: A meditation on collection development. (2009). Southeastern Law Librarian 34(3/4): 4-7.

Back away from the survey monkey! (2009). AALL Spectrum 14(2): 20-23.

A library romantic’s reply to Richard Danner. (2008). Legal Reference Services Quarterly 27(4): 255-262.  

Skating on thin intermediation: Can libraries survive? (2008). Legal Reference Services Quarterly 27(2/3): 95-116.

Implicit religion and the curvilinear relationship between religion and death anxiety: A review study. (2002). Implicit Religion 5: 17-28.

A Brazilian challenge to Lewis’s explanation of cult mediumship. (2000). Journal of Contemporary Religion 15: 361-377.

Reinterpreting telepathy as unusual experiences of empathy and charisma. (1998). Perceptual and Motor Skills 87: 131-146.

Toward a model relating empathy, charisma, and telepathy. (1997). Journal of Scientific Exploration 11: 455-471.

Psychic unity constraints upon successful intercultural communication. (1997). Language & Communication 17: 219-235. Co-author: Brian Rundle.

Espying the limits of human knowledge. (March 1997). Anthropology Newsletter 38(3): 16. 

Relating psychological measures to anthropological observations: Procrastination as a field proxy for death anxiety? (1995). Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 10: 465-472.

Validation of a Portuguese form of Templer’s Death Anxiety Scale. (1993). Psychological Reports 73: 195-200.

Charisma, empathy, and the experience of telepathy. (1992). Journal of Indian Psychology 10(1&2): 11-26.

The effects of sex and sexual orientation on attractiveness judgments: An evolutionary interpretation. (1992). Ethology and Sociobiology 13: 73-85. Co-authors: William Jankowiak; Elizabeth Hill.

Patron expectations about collocation: Measuring the difference between the psychologically real and the really real. (1991). Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 13(2): 23-43.

On the nature of belief. (1991). American Anthropologist 93: 690-691.

Blaming it on God: Considerations when presented with supernatural explanatory entities. (1990). Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 2: 230-249.

Gender, sexual orientation, and truth-of-consensus in studies of physical attractiveness. (1989). Journal of Sex Research 26(2): 264-271. Co-authors: Elizabeth Hill; William Jankowiak.

Sociobiological and psychosocial models of physical attractiveness phenomena: A confrontation of theories. (1989). Human Mosaic 23(1&2): 79-90.