CALL FOR PROPOSALS The New Anti-Poverty Advocacy: Constructs, Strategies, and Tactics

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

The New Anti-Poverty Advocacy: Constructs, Strategies, and Tactics

Section on Poverty Law; Association of American Law Schools; Annual Meeting Program, January 2010; New Orleans, Louisiana

Statements of Interest Due May 1, 2009

The recent pronounced shifts in American politics and economics intensify the need for sustained reflection, as we consider how to shape legal activism, scholarship, and policy-making against poverty.  The re-emergence of the Democratic Party in national politics and the renewed support for government action simultaneously create openings for activists and advocates and invite caution.  Similarly, the failures of the American banking system, massive government deficits, and the continued restructuring and globalization of the U.S. economy cause great misery for those at the bottom and present opportunities to press for fundamental and progressive reform.  It remains unclear whether this period is one in which power will be redistributed downward and outward to poor and working people or whether the defining values and hierarchies of the political economy in the last thirty years – variously labeled neo-liberalism, neo-conservatism, or free market fundamentalism – will be reinforced.  

 

The Section on Poverty Law seeks participants who might approach this complex and contradictory moment from differing vantage points and using diverse methods of analysis but with a shared sense of purpose and opportunity.  Proposals may focus on new developments in the areas of access to justice, legal advocacy, and law reform and policy-making.  Proposals may integrate intersecting legal frames, such as corporate law, criminal law, critical race theory, environmental law, family law, feminist theory, immigrants’ rights, international human rights, and labor and employment law.   The Section will give special attention to proposals that include consideration of the post-Katrina experience in New Orlean.  Above all, we seek presenters excited to share useful and provocative ideas that can be integrated into our teaching, practice, and scholarship.

The statements of interest should be no longer than 1 page.  We will remove all references to the name and affiliation of those who submit proposals prior to review.  Presenters will be selected on or before July 31, 2009.  The Section will seek a venue for publication of papers stemming from the panel on the basis of the interest of selected participants.

Please send statements of interest as an email attachment to Bernice Cohn at cohn@mail.law.cuny.edu.  Questions should be directed to Sameer Ashar, Chair of the Poverty Law Section, at 718-340-4180 or ashar@mail.law.cuny.edu.

-Thanks to Sameer Asher for all his hard work on this! E.R.

erosser@wcl.american.edu

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