Critical Race Studies Multimedia Archives
The Critical Race Studies program presents many events on the cutting edge of critical race theory in legal scholarship and related disciplines, and CRS is pleased to offer recordings of its past events and symposia.
To stay up to date with plans for future events and symposia, subscribe to the CRS mailing list.
Archived Events
Note: Video recordings are also available for all past CRS Annual Symposium events.
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2022 Events
Book Talk with Devon Carbado
September 21. 2022
Join CRS Professor Devon Carbado as he discusses his latest book, Unreasonable: Black Lives, Policy Power, and the Fourth Amendment. Also featuring CRS Professor Cheryl I. Harris and Professor Beth Colgan.
Mapping Anti-CRT Politics
July 27, 2022
Over the past two years, there has been a concerted effort to create a moral panic around Critical Race Theory (CRT). Political candidates, such as Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, have capitalized on this disinformation campaign to win their elections.
CRT Forward, an initiative launched out of UCLA School of Law's Critical Race Studies program, has identified trends that demonstrate broader connections between traditionally non-partisan school board elections and the pervasiveness of the anti-CRT disinformation campaign. As primaries take place across the country, join panelists in a discussion about the impact of the CRT disinformation campaign on local school board and state elections.
Panelists:
- Taifha Natalee Alexander | CRT Forward Project Director, Critical Race Studies, UCLA School of Law
- Dr. LaToya Baldwin Clark | Assistant Professor, UCLA School of Law
- Cheryl I. Harris | Vice Dean for Community, Equality and Justice, Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Professor in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, UCLA School of Law
Critical Race Theory: What It Is, What It Isn’t and What Attorneys Need to Know
April 7, 2022
During this session, hosted by the LA County Bar Association (LACBA) and the John M. Langston Bar Association of Los Angeles, panelists discussed CRT, its founding, contributions to law, and the recent attacks on the theory. The panelists also introduced CRT Forward, a data-intensive project launched by CRS to document the nationwide censorship movement and CRT disinformation campaign.
Panelists:
- Taifha Natalee Alexander | CRT Forward Project Director, Critical Race Studies, UCLA School of Law
- Dr. LaToya Baldwin Clark | Assistant Professor, UCLA School of Law
- Jasleen Kohli | Executive Director, Critical Race Studies, UCLA School of Law
Branches of the Same Vine
April 6, 2022
UCLA School of Law Williams Institute hosted Branches of the Same Vine: LGBTQ Rights, Reproductive Rights, and Critical Race Theory. For the past several years, state and local legislative initiatives limiting LGBTQ and reproductive rights and the teaching of Critical Race Theory have proliferated. This virtual panel will explore the connections between these three campaigns. Panelists included Taifha Natalee Alexander, CRT Forward Project Director.
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2021 Events
Critical Race Theory Under Attack: The Fight for Antiracist Education
July 26, 2021
Here at UCLA Law, we have been home to a nation-leading Critical Race Studies program for the last 20 years. And right now across the country, a firestorm over Critical Race Theory has exploded. New legislation bans ideas and research designed to combat racism from classrooms and workplace training by labeling them as “divisive” and “anti-American.” What is at the root of this conflict? And what are its consequences? Join our panel of experts for a deeper conversation discussing the origins of Critical Race Theory, a breakdown of the current debate, and a thoughtful analysis of what is at stake.
Reparations: What it is? Why does it matter? How will California’s Landmark Law promote it?
March 5, 2021
The Promise Institute for Human Rights, Critical Race Studies Program and David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy presented a conversation with California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, author of the CA reparations bill. Weber, Ph.D. was nominated to serve as California Secretary of State by Governor Gavin Newsom on December 22, 2020 and sworn into office on January 29, 2021. She is California’s first Black Secretary of State and only the fifth African American to serve as a state constitutional officer in California’s 170-year history.
Bad Hombres: Documentary Screening & Discussion Recording
February 5, 2021
This is a screening of Bad Hombres, a documentary that tracks the stereotypes and policies used to other Latinx people as suspect criminals, both in the context of the criminal punishment system and the criminalization of immigrants. A conversation featuring film director Carlos Sandoval and President and General Counsel of LatinoJustice (formerly Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund) Juan Cartagena, moderated by CRS Faculty Director Laura E. Gómez, follows.
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2020 Events
Reparations, Defund Movements and International Human Rights
October 28, 2020
UCLA Law’s Critical Race Studies Program, Criminal Justice Program, and the Promise Institute for Human Rights hosted this panel which explored current moves toward reparations in the US and examined how these resonate with international human rights obligations.
Moderator:
Alicia Virani, Gilbert Foundation Associate Director, UCLA Law Criminal Justice Program, CRS alum ‘11
Panelists:
Tendayi Achiume, Professor of Law and core CRS faculty member, UCLA School of Law and UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, author of recent UN report on reparations for racial discrimination rooted in slavery and colonialism.
Isaac Bryan, Director of Public Policy for the Million Dollar Hoods Project and the UCLA Bunche Center
Yuvraj Joshi, Doctoral Candidate, SSHRC Fellow, ISPS Fellow, Yale Law School
Racing the Bar: The Racial Construction of Merit & the CA Bar Exam
October 21, 2020
A conversation about new research: “An Empirical Study of Bar Exam Cut Scores and their Impact on Disparities and Diversity in the Legal Profession” by Victor D. Quintanilla, Sam Erman, and Michael Frisby.
Professor Victor D. Quintanilla, Indiana University Maurer School of Law presented his new research.
UCLA Professors Devon W. Carbado and Cheryl I Harris, founding faculty members of Critical Race Studies at UCLA Law, served as discussants. Professor Laura E. Gómez, CRS Faculty Director and founding faculty, moderated.Research Summary: The choice of a bar exam passing score (“cut score”) is also a choice about the legal profession’s racial and ethnic makeup. That is the finding of our recent empirical study of all California bar exam takers across 21 consecutive administrations of the California bar between 2009 and 2019 (n = 143,198 unique bar exams taken, including n = 85,727 unique examinees). We determined which examinees during the period passed (or would have passed with the scores they earned) at the actual 1440 cut score and at simulated cut scores including the national median cut score of 1350 in 2009. The California cut score of 1440 produced stark racial and ethnic disparities; whereas 80.5% of White applicants eventually passed the bar exam during the period, just 53.1% of Black applicants did. A lower cut score would have substantially reduced the racial and ethnic disparities of the bar exam. If California had chosen the national median cut score of 1350 in 2009, for example, 89.5% of White applicants and 70.1% of Black applicants would have passed. Similar reductions would have occurred in the Latino/White and Asian/White gaps. Setting the cut score at 1300, as some states have done, would have reduced all three gaps between Whites and groups of color by nearly half. In sum, selection of the nation’s highest cut score has produced cohorts of new lawyers who are dramatically less diverse than California’s majority-minority population.
Voting Rights: the 2020 Election and Beyond
October 19, 2020
A webinar discussing the challenges this moment presents to the right to vote in this and future elections, and how this vulnerability of this right is rooted in a long history of struggle over the meaning and scope of racial equality.
Speaker: Nicholas Espíritu, Supervising Attorney at National Immigration Law Center and Lecturer at UCLA Law
Moderated by: Aslı Ü. Bâli, Professor and Faculty Director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights, UCLA Law
CRS Book Series: Settler Colonialism, Race, and the Law: Why Structural Racism Persists by Natsu Taylor Saito, in conversation with E. Tendayi Achiume
October 14, 2020
Settler Colonialism, Race, and the Law provides a timely analysis of structural racism at the intersection of law and colonialism. Noting the grim racial realities still confronting communities of color, and how they have not been alleviated by constitutional guarantees of equal protection, this book suggests that settler colonial theory provides a more coherent understanding of what causes and what can help remediate racial disparities.
Author Natsu Taylor Saito was in conversation with E. Tendayi Achiume, UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance and Professor of Law and core CRS faculty member, UCLA School of Law.
From Prop 209 to Prop 16: Historical, Legal and Activist Perspectives on Affirmative Action
October 7, 2020
Californians have endured a statewide ban on race- and gender-based affirmative action policies since the passage of Proposition 209, which is widely recognized for its devastating impact on advancing racial justice in labor and education. The 2019 court case against Harvard University alleging that affirmative action policies discriminate against Asian-Americans amplifies the need for improved public understanding of affirmative action policies as legal remedies to recognize and dismantle racial harm. In November, Proposition 16 would restore affirmative action in CA.
Moderated by Professor Vinay Harpalani, the event featured:
Dr. César A. Cruz, author of Revenge of the Illegal Alien, and participant in the 1995 student hunger strike against Proposition 209
Professor Cheryl I. Harris, Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Professor in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, UCLA School of Law
Professor Jerry Kang, Distinguished Professor of Law and Asian American Studies, and Founding Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, UCLA School of Law
Eva Paterson, President and Founder of Equal Justice Society, and Yes on 16 Campaign Chairperson
Thomas A. Saenz, President and General Counsel of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Yes on 16 Campaign Chairperson.Sponsored by Repair; Center for Racial and Economic Justice at UC Hastings Law; Critical Race Studies at UCLA School of Law; Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area; California Lawyers Association; Charles Houston Bar Association; Chinese for Affirmative Action; Center on Law, Equality and Race at UC-Irvine; Dolan Law Firm; Equal Justice Society; Filipino Bar Association of Northern California; Mexican-American Legal Defense & Educational Fund, and UC Berkeley’s Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies program
Good Trouble: A National Conversation on Black Lives Matter and Tenants’ Rights
October 2, 2020
Sponsored by:
UCLA School of Law Critical Race Studies Program
UCLA School of Law Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy
UCLA School of Law National Black Law Journal
Mobilization for Justice
Legal Aid Society
Impact Center for Public Interest Law, New York Law SchoolBefore the coronavirus pandemic, Black America reckoned with another crisis: homelessness and evictions. Comprising only 13 percent of the U.S. population, Blacks accounted for approximately 40 percent of the homeless population in 2019. As the pandemic persists, many housing courts have reopened and resumed eviction proceedings. Though moratoriums may postpone an eviction, they do not provide monetary relief to prevent the eviction entirely. This conference gathered housing experts from across the nation to discuss gentrification, the experiences of Black litigants in housing courts, grassroots tenant organizing efforts in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and impact litigation which challenges anti-Blackness and discrimination against tenants. The panelists were tenant attorneys, tenants, organizers, professors and funders from organizations in New York, California, Missouri, Chicago, North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia.
The Execution of Lezmond Mitchell: Disdain for Life and Sovereignty
September 17, 2020
On August 19, 2020, the federal government executed Lezmond Mitchell, the only American Indian under a federal death penalty sentence, over the objections of the Navajo Nation. This panel explored the legal issues surrounding this case, including tribal sovereignty, criminal jurisdiction, and the role of the death penalty within American Indian communities.
Panelists:
Moderated by: Professor Angela R. Riley
Jennifer Denetdale, Professor of American Studies, University of New Mexico
Matthew L.M. Fletcher, Professor of Law, Michigan State University College of Law
Addie C. Rolnick, Professor of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Carl Slater, Navajo Nation Council DelegateSponsored by Native Nations Law and Policy Center and Critical Race Studies at UCLA School of Law.
CRS 2020-21 Book Series: Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism by Laura E. Gómez, in conversation with Cheryl I. Harris
September 16, 2020
UCLA Law Professor and Critical Race Studies co-founder Cheryl I. Harris and author and Critical Race Studies Faculty Director Laura E. Gómez discussed Gómez’s recently released book, Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism.
“In this thoughtfully argued study . . . Gómez provides much-needed insight into the true complexity of Latinx identity while revealing the ways in which the dominant culture continues to mask the many racist currents within American society. An insightful and well-researched book.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Written with exceptional clarity and drawing on deep research, Inventing Latinos presents not only a brilliant account of the changing position of Latinxs, but also a nuanced understanding of racism in the U.S. today.” — Howard Winant, co-author of Racial Formation in the United States
McGirt v. Oklahoma: A Mvskoke Triumph
September 9, 2020
On July 9, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma, holding that the reservation boundaries of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, as articulated in its treaties with the United States, remain intact. While the decision was a simple application of the rule of law, it rocked a century of jurisdictional encroachment. This panel explored the decision and its legal reasoning, and importantly, what a post-McGirt future entails for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and all of Indian country.
Sponsored by Native Nations Law and Policy Center and Critical Race Studies at UCLA School of Law.
Dismantling Racism: Critical Race Studies in Action
July 30, 2020
This webinar featured CRS alumni discussing anti-racist lawyering and advocacy in the current moment.
Moderator
- Jasleen Kohli, Director, Critical Race Studies Program, UCLA School of Law
Panelists
- Kristen A. Johnson, Assistant Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., CRS '13
- Priscilla Ocen, Professor of Law, Loyola Law School, former CRS Law Teaching Fellow 2010-2012, CRS '07
- Kelly Orians, Co-Executive Director, The First 72+, CRS '15
- Jason Wu, Staff Attorney, The Legal Aid Society (New York); Trustee, Association of Legal Aid Attorneys-UAW 2325, CRS '10
What Critical Race Studies Teaches Us About Racism, Resistance & Policing
July 7, 2020
Moderator
Panelists
On the Margins: Social Justice, COVID-19 & Vulnerable Communities
April 15, 2020
Moderators
- Jasleen Kohli
- Karin Wang
Panelists
- Sharon Dolovich
- Karlyn Kurichety
- Rachel Torres
- Nisha Vyas
Resources
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2019 Events
Strategies to Ignite Change: A Conversation with Civil Rights Expert Barbara Arnwine and Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw
March 13, 2019
Our Spring 2019 Critical Race Studies Practitioner-in-Residence Barbara Arnwine is the President and Founder of Transformative Justice Coalition, internationally renowned for its contributions to civil rights, including the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the 2006 reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, and close work with the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (where Arnwine serves as Vice-chair).
Law students often wish for more access and opportunities to network with practitioners doing impactful work on the ground. The CRS Practitioner-in-Residence program fosters student connections with attorneys in the field who are doing cutting-edge work within the CRS mission.
Critical Perspectives on Race and Human Rights: Transnational Re-Imaginings
March 8, 2019
Videos:
- Welcome and Panel 1: Race, Political Equality, and Human Rights
- Panel 2: Race, Migration, and Human Rights
- Panel 3: Race, Socio-Economic Inequality, and Human Rights
This conference is jointly convened by UCLA's Critical Race Studies Program, Promise Institute for Human Rights, International and Comparative Law Program and Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs, and aims to foster a transnational, interdisciplinary academic inquiry among human rights, TWAIL and CRT scholars on some of the most pressing issues of our time.
Contemporary global and national political crises, many of which threaten the human rights of millions and even the international human rights system itself, bring into sharp relief enduring legacies of racial injustice and racial inequality all over the world. Yet substantive racial justice and equality seem marginal within contemporary global human rights legal scholarship, discourse, institutions, and even among the advocacy organizations that wield the greatest international influence on issues of human rights concern. Novel, radical ways of re-imagining the role of law and legal institutions in achieving racial justice and equality are urgent, and this conference will convene an interdisciplinary group of scholars to consider the place of human rights in this larger context. It will explore critical perspectives on race and human rights from the joint perspectives of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL).
Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color in The Current Climate
March 4, 2019
Co-hosted with the Williams Institute.
Andrea Ritchie is a Black lesbian immigrant and police misconduct attorney and organizer who has engaged in extensive research, writing, and advocacy around criminalization of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people of color over the past two decades. She recently published Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color now available from Beacon Press.
Fighting Criminal (In)Justice, Building a Social Movement: Celebrating the Re-entry Clinic’s First Decade
February 6, 2019
Co-sponsored by El Centro Legal and BLSA.
Formerly incarcerated persons face a myriad of challenges when they return to their communities and roles as parents, partners, and workers. Over the course of the past 10 years, 400 UCLA law students have volunteered their Saturdays in Watts, conducting intake interviews and providing legal consultation to 2,800 individuals. Under the supervision of volunteer attorneys (initially) or attorneys for A New Way of Life (three of them former re-entry clinic student volunteers themselves), they have collectively filed 8,400 post-conviction relief petitions with an 85% success rate. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors recently recognized the program's impact.
Panelists:
Saúl Sarabia '96
Chair, Los Angeles County Probation Reform Implementation Team
Academic Coordinator, UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Education
Critical Race Studies Program Director, 2005-11Priscilla Ocen '07
Professor, Loyola Law School
Vice-chair, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Civilian Oversight Commission
CRS Teaching Fellow, 2010-12CT Turney-Lewis '13
Supervising Staff Attorney, A New Way of Life Re-Entry ProjectMaryam Abidi '20
Co-Chair, El Centro Legal/CRS Re-entry Legal Clinic -
2018 Events
Emerging Veteran Legal Issues: At the Intersections and Margins of Justice
October 17, 2018
Panelists included:
Elizabeth Perez | Deputy Secretary of Minority Affairs California Department of Veterans Affairs
Sgt. Tracey Cooper-Harris | Plaintiff, Cooper-Harris v. USA
Mia Yamamoto | Criminal Defense and Civil Rights Attorney (Vietnam-era Veteran)The panel explored the untold story of veterans, especially focusing on an intersectional analysis of issues faced by LGBTQ veterans, veterans of color, and homeless veterans.
The Carceral State and the Regulation of Motherhood
October 3, 2018
Priscilla Ocen, Professor of Law at Loyola Law School and former Critical Race Studies Teaching Fellow, on The Carceral State and the Regulation of Motherhood.
Across the country, incarcerated women are separated from their children and subject to pervasive forms of reproductive abuse. Often, the familial separation and reproductive abuse experienced by women prisoners is framed as a "collateral" or "unintended" consequence of women's imprisonment. Professor Ocen, however, contests this framing, arguing that the regulation of women's reproductive and familial autonomy is an essential function of women's prisons in the United States.
Race, Law, and the Current Moment: A Critical Race Studies Perspective
September 5, 2018
Trumping Our Rights: Re-Centering our Advocacy in the Age of 45
March 16, 2018
On Friday, March 16, 2018, the National Black Law Journal hosted a symposium in collaboration with the Critical Race Studies program titled "Trumping Our Rights: Re-Centering our Advocacy in the Age of 45." This symposium focused on the effects that the current President's policies and judicial appointees have had and will have on the Black community, as well as how we can overcome these challenges as lawyers and activists to continue fighting for the liberation of our people.
LINK TO VIDEO OF MORNING SESSIONS
Immigration and International Rights Panel
The Immigration and International Rights panel will discuss how the current administration's policies have affected Black immigrants and the African diaspora from as near as Haiti and as far as Chad. Panelists will discuss topics including, but not limited to, the travel bans, the end of temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants, and DACA. Our panelists are:Tendayi Achiume
Assistant Professor of Law at UCLA LawKhaled Beydoun
Associate Professor of Law at University of Detroit Mercy LawJennifer Chacón
Chancellor's Professor of Law at UC Irvine LawModerator: Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane
UCLA School of Law, LLM Student '18Criminal Justice and Policing Panel
The Criminal Justice and Policing panel will examine aspects of the criminal justice system both pre and post the Donald Trump White House. The discussion will include an examination of how the current U.S. Attorney General's policies target Black people and communities. Topics will range from predatory policing and Fourth Amendment law to the privatization of federal prisons, the relaunch of the War on Drugs, and the departure from investigations of police departments accused of various forms of state violence. Our panelists are:Devon Carbado
The Honorable Harry Pregerson Professor of Law at UCLA LawLisa Holder
Lecturer in Law at UCLA LawSunita Patel
Assistant Professor of Law, Faculty Director, UCLA Veterans Legal ClinicModerator: Priscilla Ocen
Professor of Law, Loyola Law SchoolLINK TO VIDEO OF AFTERNOON SESSIONS
Education Panel
The Education panel will explore the ways in which this administration's policies negatively impact Black students. Panelists will discuss topics including, but not limited to, the school-to-prison pipeline, increased funding for charter schools in conjunction with decreased funding for traditional public schools, access to higher education, and changes to financial aid. Our panelists are:Cheryl Harris
Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Professor in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at UCLA LawJonathan Glater
Professor of Law at UC Irvine LawSteven Nelson
Assistant Professor of Leadership & Policy Studies at University of MemphisKimberly West-Faulcon
James P. Bradley Chair in Constitutional Law at Loyola Law SchoolModerator: Caleb Jackson
UCLA School of Law, J.D. '18Gender & Sexuality Panel
The Gender and Sexuality panel will interrogate the threat that this administration poses to Black women and the LGBTQ community, as well as the tools of advocacy we should employ as lawyers and activists to combat these threats. Panelists will discuss topics including, but not limited to, the administration's attack on women's reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, and protections against sexual assault through an intersectional lens. Our panelists are:Michele Goodwin
Chancellor's Professor of Law at UC Irvine LawRussell Robinson
Distinguished HAAS Chair in LGBT Equity Professor of Law at UC Berkeley LawModerator: Akiesha Anderson
Daniel H. Renberg Law FellowCelebrating the Second Edition of Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race
March 6, 2018
Re-Centering the Conversation to the Margins: Race, Gender, and Low Wage Workers
February 26, 2018
Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women
February 21, 2018
From the NFL to the Crenshaw Line: Black Workers Matter
February 14, 2018
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2017 Events
Anti-Racist Lawyering and Activism: The View from Los Angeles
October 24, 2017
Charlottesville and Beyond: Unpacking White Supremacy
September 19, 2017
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America - A Book Talk with James Forman Jr.
September 26, 2017
James Forman Jr., Professor of Law at Yale Law School, spoke about his new book Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America.
A former D.C. public defender, Forman tells riveting stories of politicians, community activists, police officers, defendants, and crime victims. He writes with compassion about individuals trapped in terrible dilemmas—from the men and women he represented in court to officials struggling to respond to a public safety emergency. Locking Up Our Own enriches our understanding of why our society became so punitive and offers important lessons to anyone concerned about the future of race and the criminal justice system in this country.
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2016 Events
Frontlines: Policing at the Nexus of Race and Mental Health
February 2, 2016
Introduction: Jyoti Nanda (Lecturer in Law)
Speaker: Camille Nelson, Professor of Law and former Dean at Suffolk University Law School
A widely published scholar and sought-after speaker, Camille Nelson is an expert on the intersection of critical race theory and cultural studies with particular emphasis on criminal law and procedure, health law, and comparative law. Nelson recently served a 5-year term (2010–2015) as dean of Suffolk University Law School in Boston, where she is currently a professor of law. During her tenure as dean at Suffolk, she led the creation of the school’s first strategic plan and achieved considerable successes in fundraising, grant writing, and program and partnership development.
This event was co-sponsored by Repair
Security, Theology, Surveillance and the Politics of Fear
February 3, 2016
Speaker: Nadera Shalhoub Kevorkian, Lawrence D. Biele Chair in Law at the Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law and the School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian is a longtime anti-violence, Palestinian feminist activist and scholar. She is the Lawrence D. Biele Chair in Law at the Faculty of Law-Institute of Criminology and the School of Social Work and Public Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Shalhoub-Kevorkian is also the director of the Gender Studies Program at Mada al-Carmel, the Arab Center for Applied Social Research in Haifa. Her research focuses on femicide and other forms of gendered violence, crimes of abuse of power in settler colonial contexts, surveillance, securitization, and trauma in militarized and colonized zones. Her most recent book, Security Theology, Surveillance and the Politics of Fear was published by Cambridge University Press in 2015. As a resident of the old city of Jerusalem, Shalhoub-Kevorkian engages in direct actions and critical dialogue to end the inscription of power over Palestinian children’s lives, spaces of death, and women’s birthing bodies and lives.
This event was co-sponsored by UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies
Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution: Screening and Discussion
February 18, 2016
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is the first feature-length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails. After a screening of the film, the Critical Race Studies Program hosted a discussion featuring:
Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, Distinguished Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Cheryl Harris, Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Professor in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, UCLA School of Law Interim Chair, UCLA Department of African American Studies
Ericka Huggins, Human rights activist, poet, educator, Black Panther leader and former political prisoner
Robin D.G. Kelley, Gary B. Nash Professor of American History, UCLA
Uri McMillan, Associate Professor of English and African American Studies, UCLA
This event was co-sponsored by African American Policy Forum and UCLA African American Studies Center
Is Separation the Solution?
May 6, 2016
May 7, 2016
In recent years, single-sex education has been promoted as a critical intervention to target achievement disparities and related challenges facing boys of color. While the prevalence of single-sex education has steadily declined throughout the nation as a whole, single-sex classrooms have reemerged as an attractive option within initiatives such as My Brothers Keeper and other male empowerment programs. Gender-separated interventions have been premised on the assumption that boys and girls of color face distinct disparities, and that these unique challenges are best approached by distinctly gendered approaches to education.
This convening brought together researchers, practitioners, advocates and philanthropic partners to explore the rise of gender-separate approaches to public education reform. Among the central questions to considered were: What conceptions of racial justice and gender difference underwrite the move to gender separate solutions to low achievement? Are there gender disparities in private and public resources being made available to address the needs of boys of color and girls of color? If so, how can this problem be addressed? What legal issues are raised by the proliferation of single-sex classes and schools, and how can we ensure that Title IX and constitutional protections are enforced? What role should philanthropy and community engagement play in elevating the values of race and gender equity in contemporary school reform?Speaker: Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, Distinguished Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
This event was co-sponsored by UCLA Gender Working Group, UCLA Center for American Politics and Public Policy (CAPPP), UCLA Department of Gender Studies, UCLA Race and Ethnicity Working Group, UCLA Department of African American Studies, California NOW Chapter of Greater Los Angeles, African American Policy Forum, Columbia Law Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies
Race and Supreme Court
September 15, 2016
Critical Race scholars engaged in a discussion of the 2015-16 Supreme Court term and the ramifications of its decisions.
Moderator: Jasleen Kohli, Director, Critical Race Studies Program, UCLA School of Law
Panelists:
Beth Colgan, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Michele Bratcher Goodwin, Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Director, Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy, University of California, Irvine School of Law
Cheryl Harris, Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Professor in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, UCLA School of Law Interim Chair, UCLA Department of African American Studies
Hiroshi Motomura, Susan Westerberg Prager Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Angela R. Riley, Professor of law and Director, MA/JD Joint Degree Program in Law and American Indian Studies Director, Native Nations Law and Policy Center, UCLA School of Law
This event was co-sponsored by David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy, Asian/Pacific Islander Law Students Association, Black Law Students Association, La Raza Law Students Association, Muslim Law Students Association, Native American Law Students Association, South Asian Law Students Association, Womxn of Color Collective
Fifteen Years on: "Divided We Fall" and the Politics of Race and Religion after 9/11
September 19, 2016
When a turbaned Sikh man is brutally murdered in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, a college student journeys across America to discover who counts as "one of us" in a world divided into "us" and "them." Armed with only a camera, Valarie Kaur encounters hundreds of stories never before told - stories of fear and unspeakable loss, but also of resilience and hope - until she finally finds the heart of America, halfway around the world, in the words of a widow. Weaving expert analysis into a personal journey and cross-country road trip, the film confronts the forces dividing a nation. Professor Asli Bali led a discussion after a screening of the film.
Speaker: Asli Ü. Bâli, Professor of Law and Director, Center for Near Eastern Studies
This event was co-sponsored by UCLA Office of Student Affairs
Race, Racism and American Law, Re-visioning for the 21st Century
September 22, 2016
Derrick Bell’s seminal textbook, Race, Racism and American Law, first issued in 1972, was a groundbreaking intervention that challenged the dominant view of legal pedagogy as a race-neutral process and product. Unlike other casebooks that adopted "perspectivelessness" as the mark of objectivity. Bell pursued a complex, more accurate vision, rooted in history and inspired by a black radical tradition. Its impact was throughout the legal academy and resonates still.
The co-authors of the seventh edition, Professor Cheryl I. Harris and Justin Hansford, led a panel discussion on the significance and legacy of Bell’s text, and were joined by experts in the field of race, racism and American Law who are part of the project of re-visioning the text for the 21st Century.
Speakers:
Cheryl Harris, Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Professor in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, UCLA School of Law Interim Chair, UCLA Department of African American Studies
Justin Hansford, Associate Professor, St. Louis University School of Law
This event was co-sponsored by UCLA Institute of American Cultures, Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, UCLA Asian American Studies Center, Office of the Special Assistant for Diversity St. Louis University, St. Louis University School of Law
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2015 Events
Post-9/11 Racialization of Middle Eastern and South Asian Communities
April 1, 2015
Moderator:
Maytha Alhassen, Provost Ph.D. Fellow in American Studies and Ethnicity, University of Southern California
Speakers:
Sohail Daulatzai, Associate Professor, Film and Media Studies and African American Studies, School of Humanities, University of California at Irvine
John Tehranian, Irwin R. Buchalter Professor of Law, Southwestern Law School
This event is co-sponsored by:
Asian Pacific Islander Law Students Association, Black Law Students Association, La Raza, Muslim Law Studies Association, Native American Law Students Association, and South Asian Law Students Association
Dorothy Roberts: Fatal Invention-The New Biopolitics of Race
February 19, 2015
Description: “We are witnessing the emergence of a new biopolitics in the United States that relies on re-inventing race in biological terms using cutting-edge genomic sequence and biotechnologies. Some scientists are defining race as a biological category written in our genes, while the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries convert the new racial science into race-based products, such as race-specific medicines and ancestry tests that incorporate false assumptions of racial difference at the genetic level. The genetic understanding of race calls for technological responses to racial disparities while masking the continuing impact of racism in a supposedly post-racial society. Instead, I call for affirming our common humanity by working to end social inequalities supported by the political system of race.”
Introduction by: Jyoti Nanda (Lecturer in Law)
Presentation by: Dorothy Roberts (George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology and the Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights, University of Pennsylvania Law School)
Pigford v. Glickman: Addressing USDA Racial Discrimination with One of the Largest Civil Rights Settlements in History
January 28, 2015
Video unavailable
In Pigford v. Glickman, African-American farmers claimed the USDA had systematically discriminated against them on the basis of race, wrongfully denying them of farm loans and assistance. A successful case relating to discrimination against Native American farmers also followed. Although the Pigford case was settled, many farmers were unable to file claims before the deadline and numerous lawsuits were filed. Over a decade later in 2010, Congress approved $1.25 billion to pay claims and other expenses as part of the settlement of Pigford II.
Please join us for an insightful presentation with Mr. Anurag Varma and Prof. Angela P. Harris as they discuss the history, significance, and impact of the Pigford case.
Speakers:
Anurag Varma, partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, has served as class counsel on behalf of the Native American and African-American farmers against the USDA.
Angela P. Harris, Professor of Law at UC Davis School of Law, writes widely in the field of critical legal theory and applies her insights tot he fields of environmental and food justice.
This event is co-sponsored by:
The Resnick Program for Food law and Policy, Food Law Society, Black Law Student Association, and the Native American Law Students Association
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2014 Events
Bringing the War on Terror Home: Islamophobia and the Erosion of Civil Liberties Post-9/11
October 23, 2014
LINK TO VIDEOThe domestic front of the “war on terror” has produced a sprawling counterterrorism system of policing and surveillance in the United States that stretches from NSA wiretapping to the surveillance of mosques to ballooning no-fly lists to the construction of new modes of preventive detention. These developments have also been accompanied by a sharp increase in private activities targeting affected communities with hate crimes and harassment. These developments constrain the civil liberties of Muslim-Americans, treated as objects of suspicion by neighbors and colleagues while being overtly targeted by the myriad “counterradicalization” programs adopted by police departments across the country. But the climate of fear and suspicion also extends to those who report on or criticize “war on terror” policies at home and abroad, with an unprecedented degree of pressure on journalists, investigative reporters and even academics who expose government policies to public scrutiny or critique U.S. foreign policy or American allies in the never-ending war on terror. This panel features Arun Kundnani, author of the recent book Muslims Are Coming!, which chronicles and offers a comprehensive critique of counterradicalization strategies. Mr. Kundnani is joined by Ahilan Arulanantham, who has litigated some of the most significant cases challenging government surveillance practices in Southern California, and by Yaman Salahi, who has been working to shed light on public and private efforts to restrict academic freedom.
From Gaza to Ferguson
September 18, 2014
LINK TO VIDEOFrom the Washington Postto Ebony Magazine to the streets of Ferguson and beyond, connections between events in Ferguson and Gaza have captured the popular imagination. This panel examines and explores the relationship between race, the rise of militarized policing, and the response to dissent in the United States and consider its implications in a global context.
Moderated by CRS Professor Aslı Bâli. Panelists include CRS Professor Cheryl I. Harris, Professor Robin D.G. Kelley, Professor Donna Murch, Professor Sherene Seikaly, and Hedy Epstein.
For further reading:
- Aljazeera America: LeVine, "Ferguson Is Not Gaza...Yet"
- The Star: Siddiqui, "Anti-Arab Hate Grows in Israel with Rise of the Right
- Haaretz, "Holocaust Survivors Condemn Israel for "Gaza Massacre," Call for Boycott
- Slater, "On the Uses of Provocative Analogies"
- Salon: Palumbo-Liu, "Ferguson and Gaza: The Definitive Study of How They Are and Are Not Similar"
Ian Haney Lopez on his new book, Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class
March 3, 2014
Link to videoThe Color of Criminal Suspicion: Racial Profiling, Surveillance, and the Policing of Our Communities
February 20, 2014
Link to VideoExamining the NYPD’s Stop and Frisk program, the recent Floyd, et. al. v. City of New York, et al. decision, the NYPD’s counterterrorism surveillance program, and the LAPD’s SARS program.
Panelists:
Devon Carbado, UCLA School of Law
Amna Akbar, Ohio State University Moritz College of Law
Hamid Khan, Stop LAPD Spying Coalition
Moderator:
Khaled Beydoun, UCLA School of Law
Introduction:
Asli U. Bali, UCLA School of Law
From Ground Zero: UCLA Law Students on the Past, Present, and Future of Affirmative Action
February 19, 2014
Link to VideoWhile debates over affirmative action often view students of color only as data points, in fact students, particularly UCLA Law students of color, have played a pivotal role in shaping the public discourse and the legal doctrine. This panel features UCLA alumnae of color who wrote an amicus brief, were interveners, and were witnesses in Grutter v Bollinger, the Michigan affirmative action case decided by the Supreme Court in 2003. Looking to the future, the panel also includes alumnae of color who are working on current legislation and other initiatives to reverse the damaging effects of Proposition 209 on higher education.
Panelists:
Erika Dowdell ’05, Deputy Public Defender, County of Los Angeles
Anthony Solana, Jr. ’04, President and Chairperson, For People of Color, Inc.
Erika K. Wilson ’03, Assistant Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law
Moderator:
Cheryl I. Harris, Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Professor in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, UCLA School of Law
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2013 Events
Race Undercover: Unpacking the Trayvon Martin Tragedy
October 2, 2013
Link to videoThe acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin unleashed a debate about self-defense, guns, and, most importantly, the role of race in the events surrounding Trayvon’s death as well as the courtroom. This panel proposes to unpack this debate and expose the assumptions surrounding the colorblind framing that largely drove the discussion. Questions to be considered include: Was the verdict a foregone conclusion? How did stand your ground law play a role in the case? What is the significance of the case and the verdict in the broader context of societal violence and use of force by private and public actors?
Panelists:
Sherod Thaxton, Assistant Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Robin D.G. Kelley, Gary B. Nash Professor of American History, UCLA Law
Peter Bibring, Adjunct Faculty, UCLA School of Law; Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU of Southern California
Addie C. Rolnick, Associate Professor of Law, University of Nevada Las Vegas
Moderator:
Kimberlé Crenshaw, Distinguished Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
