Award Abstract # 1946684
A Multi-User Relational Database of Habeas Corpus Petitions in the American West

NSF Org: SES
Division of Social and Economic Sciences
Recipient: BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
Initial Amendment Date: March 18, 2020
Latest Amendment Date: August 14, 2024
Award Number: 1946684
Award Instrument: Continuing Grant
Program Manager: Naomi Hall-Byers
nhallbye@nsf.gov
 (703)292-2672
SES
 Division of Social and Economic Sciences
SBE
 Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences
Start Date: June 1, 2020
End Date: August 31, 2025 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $460,410.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $529,410.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2020 = $140,990.00
FY 2021 = $168,346.00

FY 2022 = $220,074.00
History of Investigator:
  • Katrina Jagodinsky (Principal Investigator)
    kjagodinsky@unl.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
2200 VINE ST # 830861
LINCOLN
NE  US  68503-2427
(402)472-3171
Sponsor Congressional District: 01
Primary Place of Performance: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
606 Oldfather Hall
Lincoln
NE  US  68588-0327
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
01
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): HTQ6K6NJFHA6
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): Law & Science
Primary Program Source: 01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
01002223DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002122DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 9179, 9150, 098Z, 7137
Program Element Code(s): 128Y00
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.075

ABSTRACT

While habeas corpus is primarily conceived as the constitutional protection to petition against wrongful arrest or detainment, the habeas procedure also offers petitioners an opportunity to challenge deprivations of rights and liberties. This project plans to document the use of habeas corpus by creating a relational (interactive) Database of writ of civil habeas corpus petitions in the American West from 1812 through 1924. The goal of the Database is to enable scholars and others to understand how marginalized populations utilized the habeas corpus procedure to claim rights and liberties, and to learn how they used habeas petitions to push for and expand legal reforms. The project also will document judicial decision making in these cases during this early time period of U.S. expansion and history.

Employing a strategic sample of six Western states, the project will collect and encode roughly 6,000 unpublished habeas corpus petitions currently housed in federal and state archives in those sampled states. The result will be an open source and open access graph Database incorporating an indexed and quantifiable compilation of legal documents by individuals who sought to use habeas petitions to express dynamic notions of citizenship. The Database will be freely available to the general public and scholars alike, allowing for searches on the jurists and parties involved, the jurisdictions hearing the petitions, and keywords drawn from the petitions. Data from these habeas corpus petitions will inform the work of scholars and practitioners in multiple disciplines, including (among others) child and family law, federal Indian law, immigration law, labor law, race relations, criminal justice, and legal mobilization and reform.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Jagodinsky, Katrina and Young, Cory "Petitioning for Freedom: Habeas Corpus in the American West, 1812-1924" Journal for Digital Legal History , v.1 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.21825/dlh.89671 Citation Details
Jagodinsky, Katrina "Sovereignty, Race, and Freedom in Constitutions, Citations, and Corpuses" Journal for Digital Legal History , v.1 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.21825/dlh.89667 Citation Details
Jagodinsky, Katrina "SPECIAL ISSUE INTRODUCTION The Many Faces of Habeas Corpus in the American West" The Western Historical Quarterly , v.56 , 2025 https://doi.org/10.1093/whq/whaf003 Citation Details
Jagodinsky, Katrina "The Last Rose of Summer: A Century of Womens Habeas Petitions & Gendered Violence" The Western Historical Quarterly , v.56 , 2025 https://doi.org/10.1093/whq/whaf004 Citation Details

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