Ronald E. Wheeler

Biography

Associate Dean Ronald Wheeler, a recognized leader in the area of legal research instruction, has served in various law library management roles at law schools across the country, including Suffolk University Law School, the University of San Francisco School of Law, Georgia State University College of Law, and the University of New Mexico School of Law. Wheeler has taught legal research in various contexts including in stand-alone first-year legal research courses, upper division courses, online, and in study abroad programs in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Linz, Austria. Wheeler also taught a course on US Legal Research to Chinese law students at the East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai, China during the summer of 2012. Wheeler has also taught a research and writing seminar called Queer Legal Scholarship, and he has taught Critical Race Theory as a seminar course. His newest course is a seminar called Critical Legal Research applying critical theory to the legal research process.

Associate Dean Wheeler’s scholarship focusing on legal research techniques, legal research instruction, and algorithm-driven search engines has gained him national attention, and he is regularly called upon to speak about innovations in teaching and other legal research-related topics. He is also a well-known author and speaker about issues related to law library management and the role of the law library in legal education. Wheeler penned Diversity Dialogues, a regular feature in Law Library Journal which aimed to engage scholarly conversation on issues of diversity and inclusion in librarianship and the legal profession. In 2014, Wheeler was named to the Lawyers of Color “50 under 50” list of minority attorneys making an impact on legal education. In 2016-17, Wheeler served as the first Black male president of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL). He also chaired the AALL Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Awareness (IDEA) Special Committee for two years. The Special Committee, charged with reviewing the organization, querying its members, and compiling recommendations aimed at making AALL more inclusive, diverse, and accessible, saw several of its recommendations adopted by the AALL Executive Board. Dean Wheeler serves as Chair of the Finance Committee on the Board of Directors of the Law Library Microform Consortium (LLMC) and as a member of the Board of Directors of the New England Law Library Consortium. 

Associate Dean Wheeler has become passionate about the emerging field of Critical Legal Research which examines the ways that contemporary legal research processes, both print, and electronic, sustain the status quo, entrench bias, perpetuate oppressive forces, and prevent the discoverability of new and less hegemonic ideas. Wheeler has developed a new specialized research and writing seminar called Critical Legal Research modeled after a similar course taught by Professor Nicholas Mignanelli at Yale Law School.

Associate Dean Wheeler was appointed to serve as the Interim Associate Dean for Equity, Justice, & Engagement for the School of Law during FY 2022-23. He now serves as the Associate Dean for Law Libraries at Boston University School of Law’s Fineman & Pappas Law Libraries.