::Moderator Biographies::

::Moderators::

Charles Zelden: is the current lead moderator for H-Law. Born in Chicago, Illinois, he received his B.A. (with Highest Honors) and M.A. in history from Washington University in St. Louis in 1985 and his Ph. D. from Rice University in 1991. Since 1993 he as taught at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale where he currently holds the rank of Professor of History. From 1994-2004, Zelden served as Book Review Editor for H-Law. In 2006 he took on the job of Associate Moderator. In November 2011 he was named Lead Moderator. Zelden’s research focuses on the issue of rights and the courts, with a special emphasis on civil rights, voting rights and the regulation by the courts of the electoral process. All told, Zelden has published six books on these topics: Justice Lies in the District: The U. S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, 1902-1960 (1993); Voting Rights On Trial: A Handbook with Documents (2002); The Battle for the Black Ballot: Smith v Allwright and the Defeat of the Texas All-White Primary (2004); Bush v Gore: Exposing the Hidden Crisis in American Democracy (2008); the document book, The Supreme Court and Elections (2009) and Bush v Gore: Exposing the Hidden Crisis in American Democracy, Abridged and Updated 2nd Edition (2010). A seventh book, Thurgood Marshall: Race, Rights and the Struggle for a More Perfect Union, is due out in fall 2013.

Ken Aldous: is an assistant editor of H-Law. Born in Glens Falls, New York, he is an associate attorney in the Manhattan offices of Proskauer Rose LLP. He holds an Advanced Diploma in Local History, with distinction, from Oxford University and an M.A. in European history from the University at Albany-SUNY. He also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in EC Law, with merit, from King’s College London and a J.D., cum laude, from Boston College Law School. He received a B.A., summa cum laude, in biblical literature from Oral Roberts University. He serves as the Secretary of the Legal History Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. In 2004, he moderated a panel presentation sponsored by that Committee entitled “The English Heritage of the Early American Bar,” featuring Sir John H. Baker, QC FBA and Professor Mary Sarah Bilder. An avid collector of medieval and early modern legal literature, his legal-history research has focused on the works and influence of the late fifteenth century jurist, Sir John Fortescue, as well as the question of judicial independence during the early modern period. His interest in history, however, is not limited to the development of the common law. Among other historical projects, he is working on a chapter, “The Civil War Years, 1855-1876,” for inclusion in the forthcoming History of Warren County, New York, as well as a book tentatively titled "If I am Lost and This is Found": The Lives and Letters of Three Union Brothers, 1860-1865.

Jerome S. Arkenberg: is an assistant editor of H-Law. Born in Oak Park, Illinois, he received a B.A. in History and Political Science from Loyola University of Chicago in 1980, and a J.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1983. Admitted to the Illinois Bar, he practiced law out of his own firm in Chicago before returning to earn an M.A. in Ancient and Medieval History at Loyola University of Chicago in 1988. While ABD in Medieval History at UCLA, he has clerked at various firms in Los Angeles and Chicago, and taught at Cypress and Chaffey Colleges, as well as Chapman University, California State University Los Angeles, and California State University Fullerton. He has published several articles on Roman and Medieval history, along with a two-volume sourcebook of primary readings in World history, and a similar sourcebook for the Medieval Mediterranean world. Besides his work as Associate Editor for H-Law, he is also the Contributing Editor for the Internet History Sourcebooks Project. He is currently preparing a A Check-List of Medieval Common Law Manuscripts and A Manual of Medieval Common Law Incipits while finishing his dissertation on Medieval Common Law statute books and their owners.

R.B. Bernstein: is a distinguished adjunct professor of law at New York Law School, where he has taught since 1991, and an adjunct professor of political science in the Skadden, Arps Honors Program in Legal Studies at City College of New York, where he has taught since 2011. A graduate of Amherst College and the Harvard Law School, he did graduate work in history at New York University. His books include The Founding Fathers Reconsidered (Oxford, 2009), a finalist for the 201 George Washington Book Prize; Thomas Jefferson (Oxford, 2003); Amending America: If We Love the Constitution so Much, Why do We Keep Trying to Change It? (Times Books, 1993; pbk, Univ. Press of Kansas, 1995); and Are We to be a Nation? The Making of the Constitution (lead co-author, with Kym S. Rice; Harvard, 1987). His coedited books include Thomas Jefferson and Bolling v. Bolling: Law and the Legal Profession in Pre-Revolutionary America (with Bernard Schwartz and Barbara Wilcie Kern; Huntington Library Press/NYU Law School, 1997); and Roots of the Republic: American Founding Documents Interpreted (with Stephen L. Schechter and Donald S. Lutz; Madison House, 1990). He has curated or co-curated historical exhibitions for The New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, and the New-York Historical Society, and he has advised many historical documentaries for public television. He also was historian to the New York City Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution in 1987-1990 and research director of the New York State Commission on the Bicentennial of the Constitution in 1989-1990. He joined H-LAW's editorial board in 1997, and he was H-LAW's co-editor of book reviews from 1997 to 2004. He served on the ASLH Board of Directors in 2004-2007 and in 2011 was elected to a second three-year term.

Carla Spivak: Before joining the faculty at Oklahoma City College of Law, Professor Spivack practiced civil litigation at Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft, a New York law firm. She received her A.B. from Princeton, her J.D. from New York University School of Law, and her Ph.D. in English Literature from Boston College. She clerked for the Hon Robert G. Flanders, Jr. of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

Ethan Zadoff: Ethan Zadoff is the current book review editor for H-Law. He is completing his dissertation titled ‘Therefore a manshall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife: Medieval JewishMarriage law in Northern France and Germany in Comparative Perspective,1140-1234’ in the Department of History of the Graduate Center of the CityUniversity of New York. His most recent article is titled “England and the Talmudic community ofmedieval Europe,” which will appear in EnglishSociety and the Jews in the Middle Ages: The York massacre of 1190 in context. Ethan's fields of research include of medieval legal history (specifically the development of medieval Jewish and canon law), religious history and comparative law theory. Ethan is an adjunct lecturer in the Hebrew Division of HunterCollege, CUNY.

John F. Acevedo: Is the current web editor for H-law. Born in Riverside, California he received his B.A. in history (with Honors) at California State University, San Bernardino and his J.D. from the University of Southern California, Gould School of Law where he was a fellow with the Society for Law, History, and Culture. He is currently completing a Ph.D. at The University of Chicago with an emphasis on English and colonial American legal history. He has presented papers on the Salem witchcraft trials, the removal of the prohibition against defense counsel, and the role of foreign domestic law in Supreme Court decisions. He has a forthcoming essay “History of Crime and Punishment in America Essay: Colonial to 1776,” in The Social history of Crime and Punishment in America, Volume V: Essays, Wilbur R. Miller editor. He has previously served as a preceptor and lecturer at The University of Chicago. His current research focuses on the adoption of criminal procedure reforms in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the 17th century and on the effectiveness of 1st Amendment protections for non-Abrahamic religions.

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