A Forgotten Kelsenian? The Story of Helen Silving-Ryu (1906-1993)

This article seeks to create a historical contextualization of the first female law professor in America, Helen Silving-Ryu (1906-1993). Relying on Pierre Bourdieu's work on the social and historical determinants of cultural production, this article situates Silving in her days at the University of Vienna as one of the first six female students to be admitted and as the only female scholar to be mentored by Hans Kelsen (1881-1973). Much of this article deals with Kelsen's importance to Silving's intellectual development, particularly because they worked together again in Harvard after both escaped National Socialism. Despite Silvings later academic contributions and successes, her history has received little attention from the legal discipline by and large. Apart from recovering Silvings voice, through what she calls "Acts of Providence", this article also shows why, and more importantly how, Silving - and thus also a part of Kelsen's history - has been forgotten.