L. Michelle LeBaron

Professor of Law and Distinguished Scholar in Residence, Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies

LL.B. UBC 1980; M.A. SFU 1990; B.A. Chapman University 1977

Tel: 604.822.1830
Fax: 604.822.8108
E-mail: lebaron@law.ubc.ca
Office Location: Allard Hall, room 464

Profile

Michelle LeBaron joined the UBC Law Faculty in 2003 as a full professor and was Director of the UBC Program on Dispute Resolution from 2003-2012. From 1993-2003, she taught at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution and the Women's Studies program at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Prior to moving to the US, she directed the Multiculturalism and Dispute Resolution Project at the University of Victoria. Professor LeBaron has lectured and consulted around the world on intercultural conflict resolution, and has practised as a family law and commercial mediator. She was called to the Bar of British Columbia in 1982 after articling at Campney and Murphy in Vancouver.

Professor LeBaron's research focuses on how the arts can foster belonging and social cohesion across cultural and worldview differences. Her current project investigates how dance, movement and kinesthetic awareness can enhance practitioners' and parties' capacities to transform conflict and is the subject of a forthcoming book. Professor LeBaron's most recent book is Conflict Across Cultures, with co-editor Venashri Pillay of ACCORD (South Africa) and colleagues from three other world regions. She has also published on creativity, intuition, spirituality and intercultural relations.

Professor LeBaron also works on religion and conflict, exploring how identity, belonging and faith can foster community connection and resilience in diverse settings. She writes poetry and fiction and is a long-time practitioner of yoga.

Courses

• Fundamentals of Cross-Cultural Dispute Resolution Theory and Practice
• Theoretical Foundations of Dispute Resolution
• Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
• Transnational Law

Research Interests

• Cross-cultural Conflict Resolution
• Law, Legal Culture and Conflict Resolution
• Conflict across Worldview Differences
• Creativity and Conflict
• Ritual, Narrative, Metaphor and Conflict
• Gender and Conflict
• Spirituality, Religion and Conflict
• Teaching Innovation and Effective Teaching and Learning

Representative Published Works

• Alexander, Nadja and Michelle LeBaron. 2009. Death of the Roleplay. Honeyman, C., J. Coben, and G. De Palo (eds). Rethinking Negotiation Teaching: Innovations for Context and Culture. St Paul, MN: DRI Press.
• LeBaron, Michelle and Mario Patera. 2009. Reflective Practice in the New Millenium. Honeyman, C., J. Coben, and G. De Palo (eds). Rethinking Negotiation Teaching: Innovations for Context and Culture. St Paul, MN: DRI Press.
• LeBaron, Michelle and Nadja Alexander. Exporting Mediation Through Roleplays: Intercultural Considerations in Knowledge Transfer. Busch, Dominic, Claude-Helene Mayer and Christian Martin Boness (eds.) 2010. International and Regional Perspectives on Cross-Cultural Mediation; Studien zur Interkulterellen Mediation, v. 5. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. [refereed]
• LeBaron, Michelle. 2009. Loud Bones: Nancy Worden's Jewelry. LeBaron, Michelle and Susan Noyes Platt. Loud Bones: The Jewelry of Nancy Worden. Tacoma, WA: Tacoma Art Museum/University of Washington Press.
• Shapesifters and Synergy: Toward a Culturally Fluent Approach to Representative Negotiation.  In The Theory and Practice of Representative Negotiation.  Hanycz, C, Farrow, T and Zemans, F. (Eds.)  Toronto: Emond Montgomery. 2007.
• Conflict Across Cultures. A Unique Experience of Bridging Differences.  Boston, MA: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. 2006
• "Learning New Dances: Finding Effective Ways of Addressing Intercultural Disputes", in Catherine Bell and David Kahane (Eds.) Intercultural Dispute Resolution in Aboriginal Contexts: Canadian and International Perspectives . Vancouver, British Columbia: University of British Columbia Press, 2004.
• "Windows on Diversity: Lawyers, Culture, and Mediation Practice", co-authored with Zena Zumeta, Conflict Resolution Quarterly 20(4), Summer 2003: 463-472.
• Bridging Cultural Conflicts: A New Approach for a Changing World . San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2003.
• Bridging Troubled Waters: Conflict Resolution from the Heart . San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2002.
• "Why the Foreign Matters in Foreign Affairs: Cultural Understanding in Policy Processes", co-authored with Jarle Crocker, Harvard International Review , Fall 2000: 54-59.

Publications listed on the UBC Law Library Faculty Research Publications Database