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Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 2015

Publication Citation

22 Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 95 (2015)

Abstract

In this Comment, I would like to pick up a thread of the authors' analysis and, in so doing, shift the emphasis a bit. That thread relates to their use of Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical conceptualizations of "field" and "forms of capital." In their analysis of admissions essays submitted by foreign-lawyer applicants, Lazarus-Black and Globokar consider how the discursive genre of the admissions essay orients itself to the powerladen structures that constitute the particular field within which the essay is playing, or to which it is addressed.8 They also use the Bourdieusian concepts of "cultural and linguistic capital" in relation to global citizenship and English language acquisition.9 The variety of tactics that applicants pursue in their essays as they navigate the contradictory goals required by the admissions process is fascinating to watch. The authors' focus is on the nature of the cultural and linguistic capital that foreign-lawyer applicants perceive they must demonstrate to gain admission to each of the LL.M. programs under consideration. At the same time, the authors are interested in what the essays might reveal about the statuses, life histories, and aspirations of foreign applicants.

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