Writing from her office at UCLA School of Law in 1989, Distinguished Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw used the term “intersectionality” in a University of Chicago Legal Forum article to highlight the way that different forms of social inequality or disadvantage manifest and compound each other. The article, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” launched a concept that has since gained great traction in academia and popular discourse.
In 2018-19, the Critical Race Studies program named the first recipients of the Erika J. Glazer Endowed Scholarship for first-year law students who are dedicated to achieving equity for Los Angeles' African American communities. The scholarships were made possible by a $250,000 gift from Glazer, a philanthropist who focuses on building strong communities throughout L.A.
Willis is a Los Angeles native who is the first in her immediate family to have attended college. She earned her bachelor's degree from St. Catherine University in Minnesota, where she majored in political science and critical studies of race and ethnicity; and a master's degree in cultural anthropology from Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York, where she served as a student representative on the admissions and departmental elections committees. While in school and in between her undergraduate and master’s programs, Willis worked as a data analyst, coordinator and manager at organizations addressing fair housing, women’s health, access to mental health resources, education and environmental justice. She hopes to work in L.A. as an advocate for improving access, opportunity and outcomes for African American and other historically underrepresented communities. She also has interests in data security, government ethics, labor and environmental regulation and election law.
Three UCLA School of Law students have received Skadden Fellowships to pursue public interest law after they graduate. The two-year fellowships, presented annually since 1988, are among the most prestigious and competitive awards for public interest law students.
Advancing workplace-related rights for underrepresented communities in Los Angeles, in 2018-19 the Critical Race Studies program launched a new Race, Work and Economic Justice Clinic in collaboration with the Los Angeles Black Worker Center and San Francisco-based Legal Aid at Work.
UCLA School of Law Professor Noah Zatz and scholars at the UCLA Labor Center have published a groundbreaking report on Los Angeles County’s broken system of court-ordered community service.
More than 150 leaders in human rights, critical race theory and third world approaches to international law convened at UCLA School of Law on March 8 for the symposium “Critical Perspectives on Race and Human Rights: Transnational Re-Imaginings.”