Ralph Grunewald
Position title: CLSJ Director, Associate Professor, English
Email: grunewald@wisc.edu
Ralph Grunewald is an associate professor in the Department of English and the Center for Law, Society, and Justice. He currently is Mellon-Morgridge Professor of the Humanities. He received his law degree from the University of Mainz and the State of Bavaria, Germany, a Ph.D. in Criminal Law and Criminology from the University of Mainz (summa cum laude) and a Master of Laws Degree (LL.M.) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.
In his research, he studies the relationship between law and the humanities with a focus on legal narratology, that is the study of how the way law and lawyers tell stories affects the functioning of the legal system and the outcome of cases. Among his publications are two books, the latest being “Narratives of Guilt and Innocence: The Power of Storytelling in Wrongful Conviction Cases” (NYU Press 2023). The book was awarded the Herbert Jacob Book Prize by the Law and Society Association.
Ralph is a devoted teacher. At UW-Madison, he teaches classes on criminal justice in America, law and literature, and true crime. He is a member of the UW-Madison Teaching Academy and serves on the Athletic Board. He has received numerous teaching awards, among them the William H. Kiekhofer Distinguished Teaching Award (2017), awarded from the Chancellor of UW-Madison.