Gender and the Law Prof Blog

Con Law Scholars CFP The Future of Reproductive Rights at the Center for Constitutional Law

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW SCHOLARS FORUM
THE CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AT AKRON
Friday, October 28, 2022 (virtual)

The Future of Reproductive Rights

The Center for Constitutional Law at Akron seeks proposals for its annual Constitutional Law Scholars Forum. The Center is one of four national centers established by Congress in 1986 on the bicentennial of the Constitution for legal research and public education on the Constitution. Past program topics have focused on the history of race discrimination, LGBTQ rights, civil rights remedies, federal courts, and women’s suffrage. Presenters at the Center have included Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Justice Arthur Goldberg, Judge Jeffrey Sutton, Professor Reva Siegel, Professor Lawrence Solum, Professor Katie Eyer, Professor Ernest Young, Professor Julie Suk, and Professor Paula Monopoli, among many others.

The 2022 Forum brings together scholars to explore the question of the future of reproductive rights and justice. The U.S. Supreme Court will soon issue a monumental decision in the pending case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, altering the fifty-year constitutional consensus on protection for reproductive autonomy under the federal Constitution. What will the parameters of constitution liberty look like after this decision? Anticipating this change, states have already begun legislating for and against reproductive choice. Some of these cases, like those in Texas, have added justiciability hurdles to the debate before the Supreme Court. At the same time, women in the U.S. and abroad continue to seek affirmative rights related to pregnancy, surrogacy, and other reproductive interests. This Forum invites papers and presentations on any and all aspects related broadly to this topic of reproductive rights and justice.

The Forum will be held virtually on Friday, October 28, 2022. This virtual meeting allows for expanded access to scholars by reducing costs, balancing work/life/health demands, and reaching widely across geographic bounds. Papers will then be published in a symposium edition of the Center’s open-access journal, ConLawNOW (also indexed in Westlaw, Lexis, and Hein). Papers are typically shorter, essay style and publication is expedited within four to six weeks of final paper submission. The journal is designed to put issues of constitutional import into debate in a timely manner while they have the opportunity to impact the discussion and decisions.

Those interested in participating in the Constitutional Law Scholars Forum should send an abstract and CV to Professor Tracy Thomas, Director of the Center for Constitutional Law, at thomast@uakron.edu by August 30, 2022.

 

Download Constitutional Law Scholars Forum CFP 2022

Sonia Rankin on "Would You Make it to the Future? Teaching Race in an Assisted Reproductive Technologies and the Law Classroom"

Sonia M. Gipson Rankin has posted a forthcoming work titled Would You Make It to the Future? Teaching Race in an Assisted Reproductive Technologies and the Law Classroom on SSRN. This work is forthcoming in the Family Law Quarterly. The abstract previews: 

Would you make it to the future? For the last five years, I have started my Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) lecture in Family Law with this question. Students take the query seriously. They ponder their lived experiences such as home training, medical history, education, financial well-being, personality traits, work ethic, and social graces when determining if they would be the “model DNA” someone might select in a future society. The good-natured jokes about being nearsighted, having a pitiful jump shot, and wearing orthodontic headgear turn reflective when someone raises the question: would someone in the future select my race?

In this paper, Section I describes how race connects to family law. Section II explains cognitive dissonance theory, color blindness ideology, and the relationship of these theories to racial inequality in family law and how this connects to assisted reproductive technologies. Section III provides the framework for race-centered learning outcomes, a relevant rubric for reflection papers, and examples of case law and legislation that addresses race and ART. Section IV concludes by addressing how these skills and assessments in our family law curricula can impact systemic change in the practice of family law and the legal academy.

The article concludes: 

Legal education must be at the forefront of assisted reproductive technology. Our students will serve be crafters and litigators of ART contracts and decisions, policymakers and drafters of legislation, and will hold the hands of clients planning the biggest decisions of their futures. Showing students distinctions in family law shows the academy is responsive to realties in the practice of law. Race can serve as the first way to unpack cognitive dissonance. Professors must show the fallacies in the law so students can learn how to use their agency to critique the law and be excellent advocates for their clients. A racial cognitive dissonance lens allows students to review the impact of all the law, given the role of technology in the law that did not exist when the law was being formed. Understanding cognitive dissonance and cultural competency can help reduce legal issues in family law and ART.

A tagline for Gattaca [a "1997 science fiction film [depicting] a future society that uses reproductive technology and genetic engineering to produce genetically enhanced human beings"] states, “There is no gene for the human spirit.” There is a part of our lived journey that cannot be captured by DNA nor contract law but can only be bettered through our interactions with each other.

Webinar From the 19th to the ERA: Leser v. Garnett and the Validity of Constitutional Amendments

Webinar, University of Maryland Law, From the 19th to the ERA: Leser v. Garnett and the Validity of Constitutional

Monday, Feb. 28, 2022

Please join Paula A. Monopoli, Sol & Carlyn Hubert Professor of Law, to mark the centennial of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Leser v. Garnett on February 27, 1922, validating the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In Leser, a local judge had challenged the voter registration of two Baltimore City women, one Black and one white, on the theory that the woman suffrage amendment was “an unconstitutional constitutional amendment.” Hear two distinguished constitutional scholars discuss the connections between the Supreme Court’s analysis of the Nineteenth Amendment’s constitutional validity and today’s debates about the validity of the Equal Rights Amendment.

• Julie Chi-hye Suk, Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law, and Florence Rogatz Visiting Professor of Law & Senior Research Scholar, Yale Law School

• Tracy A. Thomas, Seiberling Chair of Constitutional Law and Director, Center for Constitutional Law, University of Akron School of Law

CFP Symposium State Violence and Womxn - Defining the Reaches of Modern Policing

California Western School of Law, State Violence and Womxn: Defining the Reaches of Modern Policing

TOPIC SUMMARY

The protests against police killings during the summer of 2020 emphasized that race plays a critical role in understanding the nature of state-sanctioned violence. To date, much of the conversation regarding such violence has focused on Black and Latinx men. Nevertheless, there is much to be said about the topic as it relates to race and gender, particularly with respect to cis-women of color and trans women. Moreover, discussions regarding this issue often center around the actions of police, despite such violence also appearing in various law enforcement contexts such as, but not limited to, within prison walls and at border crossings.

To this end, the California Western Law Review is hosting a virtual symposium on March 24, 2022, for the purpose of facilitating a comprehensive discussion on the topic of state-inflicted violence against cis-women of color and trans women in various law enforcement contexts. Ultimately, the goals of the symposium are to identify and bring awareness to critical legal issues underlying this topic and to consider the possibility of positive change for all womxn by adapting current law enforcement practices to incorporate features of restorative justice.

Registration and additional symposium details are forthcoming.

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CALL FOR PAPERS

The Law Review Symposium Committee invites those interested in participating in the symposium to submit an abstract that introduces an article (hereinafter “manuscript”) related to the topic described above to be published in the symposium issue of the California Western Law Review.

Abstract Due Date: February 7, 2022
Final Paper Due Date: May 2, 2022

Abstract submissions should include:

• The title of the submitted manuscript;

• A 300 to 500-word abstract that discusses the proposed symposium topic and outlines the contents of the paper;

• The name and email address of the author;

• The curriculum vitae of the author; and

• A statement indicating whether the author would like their topic to be considered as a featured topic* for a discussion panel at the symposium.
  *Please see below for more details regarding discussion panel topics.

Final Manuscript Requirements:

• 10,000 maximum word limit (approximately 20 single-spaced pages);

• Citations must be contained in footnotes and conform to the most recent edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System

  of Citation;

• Manuscripts should be timely and provide an original in-depth analysis of the topic above;

• The title page should include the author’s full name, their academic/professional affiliations, and complete contact

  information where correspondence can be made.

Featured Topics for Discussion Panels:

The symposium will feature three discussion panels, each consisting of no more than three panelists. To determine the topic for each panel, the committee will select four abstracts/manuscripts to be featured as discussion topics. The respective authors will also be invited to participate as panelists for the panel that features their topic.

Author-speakers will receive an honorarium for their contributions.

Prior to the symposium, the four authors will submit a “Symposium Draft” consisting of a general overview of the author’s ideas to be featured in their manuscript as well as potential talking points. This document will be provided to the moderator and fellow panelists for reading. The reason for this is to ensure robust and consistent dialogue during each panel. As a result, the authors and audience members alike will benefit from the overall discussion and engagement that follows. Moreover, all authors will have the opportunity to revisit their manuscripts with potentially new insights and ideas to incorporate in their final drafts due May 2, 2022.

How to Submit:

Please submit abstracts to jacisneros@law.cwsl.edu or with “State Violence and Womxn” in the subject line.

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AALS Women in Legal Education Section Programming at 2022 Annual Meeting

From the WILE Newsletter h/t Susan Bisom-Rapp and Victoria Haneman.

WILE ANNUAL MEETING SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE (virtual conference)

◆ Wednesday, January 5, 12:35 - 1:50 pm Eastern: AALS Awards Ceremony (the inaugural Deborah L. Rhode Award will be presented to Professors Stacy Butler and Wendy Greene)

◆ Wednesday, January 5, 2:00 - 3:00 pm Eastern: WILE Networking Session

◆ Wednesday, January 5, 3:10 - 4:25 pm Eastern: Open Source Program on the Impact of Deborah Rhode (planned by Section on WILE, the Section on Professional Responsibility, Section on Pro Bono, Section on Leadership)

◆ Wednesday, January 5, 4:45 pm - 6:00 pm Eastern: WILE Works-in-Progress: Other Voices in Feminist Legal Theory

◆ Thursday, January 6, 12:35 - 1:50 pm Eastern: WILE Primary Program - Equality, Intersectionality, and Status in the Legal Academy

◆ Thursday, January 6, 2:00 - 3:00 pm Eastern: WILE Award Ceremony (the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to LSAC Deputy for Legal and Global Higher Education Camille deJorna)

◆ Friday, January 7, 4:45 - 6:00 pm Eastern: Introducing and Supporting Intersectionality in Pedagogy

 

WILE kicks off the 2022 Annual Meeting at the AALS Awards Ceremony (Wednesday, January 5, 12:35 – 1:50 pm Eastern) during which the inaugural Deborah L. Rhode Award will be presented to Professors Stacy Butler (Arizona) and Wendy Greene (Drexel). The award, created by WILE and the Sections on Leadership, Professional Responsibility, and Pro Bono & Public Service, honors the contributions, service, and leadership of the late Deborah Rhode by recognizing new trailblazers in legal education and the legal profession. Professor Butler is being honored for founding and directing Innovation for Justice (i4J), a social justice-focused innovation lab. Professor Greene is being recognized for her scholarship, activism, and law reform work aimed at prohibiting race-based natural hair discrimination. I am grateful for the hard work of the award selection committee: Interim Dean Douglas Blaze (Tennessee), Professor Renee Knake Jefferson (Houston), Assistant Director Nadine Mompremier (Columbia), and Associate Dean Adrien Wing (Iowa).

Our second event is the WILE Section Networking Session (Wednesday, January 5, 2:00 – 3:00 pm Eastern), which will afford our members a chance to meet and learn in a more informal format. Thanks to WILE Secretary Victoria Haneman (Creighton) and Executive Committee member Milena Sterio (Cleveland-Marshall) for moderating that session. I encourage you all to attend this valuable session.

Following that session will be the Open Source Program – The Impact of Deborah Rhode (Wednesday, January 5, 3:10 – 4:25 pm Eastern) (Co-Sponsored by the Sections on Leadership, Professional Responsibility, Pro Bono & Public Service Opportunities, and WILE). A distinguished panel representing Deborah Rhode’s diverse interests has been assembled to reflect on her legacy and its impact on future projects and initiatives. The panelists are Professor Ben Barton (Tennessee), Dean Garry Jenkins (Minnesota), former Assistant Dean Tom Schoenherr (Fordham), and Associate Dean Adrien Wing (Iowa). Topics include Deborah Rhode’s impact on women and diversity in legal education, legal ethics, the imperative of pro bono within the legal academy and the profession, and leadership. Thanks to Lucy Ricca (Stanford), who is the Policy and Program Director at the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession, for expertly organizing and serving as moderator for the Open Source Program. Chair Elect Lisa Mazzie (Marquette) served on a multi-Section subcommittee, which selected the program’s speakers.

Our fourth program at the Annual Meeting is the WILE Works-in-Progress Session – Other Voices in Feminist Legal Theory (Wednesday, January 5, 4:45 – 6:00 pm Eastern). This program, based on a call for papers, focuses on the views of scholars whose work marks them as feminist legal theorists even if they have not traditionally been labeled as such. The scholars presenting work are: Noa Ben-Asher (Pace), Gender Identity, The New Legal Sex; Kim D. Ricardo (UIC), Comparative Study of Abortion Laws in Argentina and the United States; and Anna Offit (SMU), Benevolent Exclusion. Professor Bridget Crawford (Pace) is our discussant. The session moderator is Dean Lolita Buckner Inniss (Colorado). The session was organized by Dean Inniss (Colorado), Rachel Croskery-Roberts (UCI), Catherine Hardee (California Western), Fernanda Nicola (American), and Nancy Soonpaa (Texas Tech)

The following day, WILE hosts its primary program, Equality, Intersectionality, and Status in the Legal Academy (Thursday, January 6, 12:35 – 1:50 pm Eastern)(Co-Sponsored by the Section on Minority Groups, and the Section on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues). Based on a call for papers, this session will explore visible and invisible status distinctions in the legal academy, how people of color and women are affected by them, and whether various solutions can improve equality. Scholars presenting work are Angela Mae Kupenda (Mississippi College), Killing Me Softly with His Song, and Options toward Professing the Truth; Rachel Lopez (Drexel), Untitled: The Power of Designation in the Legal Academy; Shefali Milczarek-Desai & Sylvia Lett (Arizona), Flipping the Script: Two BIPOC Law Professors Embrace and Enunciate Difference to Further Equality in the Legal Academy; and Melissa Weresh (Drake), Hierarchy Maintained: Gender Inequity in the Legal Academy. As WILE Section Chair, Susan Bison-Rapp will moderate the session. The session was organized by WILE Chair Elect Lisa Mazzie (Marquette) along with Executive Committee members Naomi Cahn (Virginia), Rachel Croskery-Roberts (UCI), Rona Kaufman (Duquesne), Ashley London (Duquesne), Linda McClain (Boston), Nancy Soonpaa (Texas Tech), and Milena Sterio (Cleveland-Marshall).

Following immediately after the WILE primary program, the Section will host its Annual Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award Ceremony (Thursday, January 6, 2:00 – 3:00 pm Eastern). Since 2013, WILE has given out a lifetime achievement award to an individual who has impacted women, the legal community, the academy, and the issues that affect women through mentoring, writing, speaking, activism, and providing opportunities to others. Our 2022 recipient is Camille deJorna, who serves as Deputy for Legal and Global Higher Education at the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC). Before that post, she served in a top role in the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar and oversaw the admissions and student affairs offices at several law schools, including Columbia, Hofstra, and the University of Iowa. She was selected by the WILE Executive Committee for her pathbreaking work on diversity and inclusion in the legal academy and profession. Special thanks to Dean Lolita Buckner Inniss (Colorado) for managing the nomination process and to Dean Tamara Lawson (St. Thomas) for providing the beautiful plaque for the occasion.

The Section’s seventh and final program is a session on pedagogy titled Introducing and Supporting Intersectionality in Pedagogy (Friday, January 7, 4:45 – 6:00 pm Eastern). Discussions related to gender, race, class, sexual orientation, age, immigration, and/or disability visibly shape the law and richly impact classroom outcomes. The goal of this session is to consider new pedagogical tools and ideas both for incorporating intersectional feminism into the law school classroom, and for exploring these ideas with faculty colleagues who may be resistant. Speakers include Jamie Abrams (Louisville), Bridget
Crawford (Pace), Teri McMurtry-Chubb (John Marshall), and Kathryn Stanchi (UNLV). Serving as commentators are Dean Angela Onwuachi-Willig (Boston) and Dean Sean Scott (California Western). WILE Secretary Victoria Haneman (Creighton) will moderate. Assisting Victoria Haneman (Creighton) in organizing the session were Executive Committee members Jill Engle (Penn State Law), Catherine Hardee (California Western), Fernanda Nicola (American), and Kerri Stone (Florida International).

 

16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

On December 8th at 8 a.m. EST the International Center for Research on Women kicks off its 16 days of activism against Gender-Based Violence. The launch program is focused on how technology-facilitated gender-based violence manifests in Asia. Here is a summary of the event. 

 

Technology-facilitated GBV is a growing phenomenon that includes stalking, bullying, and sexual harassment based on sexual and gender identity, carried out online. NORC at the University of Chicago and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) will share the results of their research related to the trends in technology-facilitated GBV, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with a closer look at the state of tech-facilitated GBV in India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Indonesia. We will also present recommendations for future programming and research priorities in the region, and open a dialogue with attendees on how to prevent, mitigate, and respond to technology-facilitated GBV in the region.

This work was funded by USAID under the Democracy, Human Rights and Governance Learning, Evaluation and Research (DRG-LER) II Activity.

Speakers will include:
- Karen Freeman, USAID Assistant Administrator for Asia (opening remarks)
- Dr. Laura Hinson, ICRW's Senior Social & Behavioral Scientist (panel moderator)
- Mithila Iyer, NORC at the University of Chicago Research Assistant
- Poulomi Pal – ICRW consultant

Here is the link to register.  This is an important opportunity for legal scholars to engage globally and to respond to changing conditions.

Rutgers Law School Symposium on Justice Ginsburg's Legacy

The Rutgers Women's Rights Law Reporter is hosting its Winter 2021 Symposium on December 2, 2021 from 3:00 - 5:00. The program is titled Feminism in the Law: An Exploration of Justice Ginsburg's Legacy.  The program is both in-person and virtual. Here is the link to register:  https://law.rutgers.edu/WRLR-Symposium-RBG-Hall-Dedication. Here is a list of speakers: 

Opening Remarks:

• Professor Jane Ginsburg - Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law at Columbia Law School. Daughter of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
• Director Rachel Wainer Apter - Director of the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights. Associate Justice nominee for the Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Featured Speakers:

• Reva Siegel - Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Professor of Law at Yale Law School
• Jhuma Sen - Associate Professor at Jindal Global Law School and Assistant Director, Centre for Human Rights Studies at O.P. Jindal Global University
• Chase Strangio - Deputy Director for Transgender Justice with the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project
• Chalana Scales-Ferguson - Director of Academic Success at the University of Missouri - Columbia School of Law
• Earl Maltz - Distinguished Professor at Rutgers Law School, Camden, New Jersey

Moderator: Dean Suzanne Kim - Associate Dean of Academic Research Centers, Professor of Law, and Judge Denny Chin Scholar at Rutgers Law School.

Using Videos to Boost Your Scholarly Impact

As blog readers consider how to boost their scholarly impact, check out Academia.edu's video upload feature added in January 2021. It is an intriguing tool. Here is one example of this feature in action posted on Academia.edu by Hilary Parsons Dick sharing a video presentation of her scholarly talk.  Here is the written summary of her particular project too, which is of substantive relevance to readers too: 

Since the early twentieth century, US immigration policy regimes have created a discriminatory ontology of migration that conflates the legal category of the “illegal alien” and a cultural image of Mexican and Central American migrants as dangerous, criminal Others. The production of this ontology is rooted in a highly racialized process of gendering that reinscribes long-standing white supremacist views of “dangerous brown men” and “submissive brown women.” I explore these processes through an investigation of the massive regulatory changes the Trump administration made to the US asylum system, which have disproportionately affected women and children from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. I focus on a precedential ruling by Trump's Attorney General Jeff Sessions on an asylum case called the Matter of AB. I argue that Sessions deploys a semiotics of individuation to construct violence against women as a private matter that does not warrant asylum protections.

Here are instructions on how to post videos on Academia.edu. 

CFP Feminist Legal Theory Network at Law and Society Annual Meeting

SUBMISSION LINK UPDATED (10/27): 1feministlegaltheory@gmail.com 

 

The Feminist Legal Theory Collaborative Research Network of the Law and Society Association
Global Meeting on Law & Society, Lisbon, Portugal & Virtual, July 13-16, 2022

Call for Papers – Friday, October 29 Deadline

Dear friends and colleagues,

We write to invite you to participate in panels sponsored by the Feminist Legal Theory Collaborative Research Network (FLT CRN) at the LSA-sponsored Global Meeting on Law & Society, July 13-16, 2022. Information about the conference (including registration and planning your visit) is at: https://www.lawandsociety.org/lisbon-2022-homepage.  Please note that the meeting is going to be held later than usual.

The theme for the Global Meeting is Rage, Reckoning, & Remedy. Feminist legal theory should and does have a lot to say about all three topics and the urgency with which we confront them now – globally but amidst vast and escalating inequality and a crisis of rising hate, fascism, and illiberal policies across the globe.

In this context, we are especially interested in papers that bring a critical feminist lens to their topics and that embrace the international character of the conference. Such papers will address the intersectional, gendered aspects of their subjects.
The following non-exhaustive list is intended to provide examples of topic areas, and not to limit scholarly and creative engagement of feminist legal theory with the conference themes:

● Present-day inequalities caused by unacknowledged and unaddressed (or inadequately addressed) legacies of slavery and colonialism.
● Consequences of neoliberal economic and social policies amidst (so-called) globalization.
● World health and environmental crises such as HIV/AIDS, Covid 19, climate change, and military, police, and other pervasive violence against marginalized people and communities around the globe.
● Critiques of international law and human rights approaches and institutions.
● Rule of law, access to justice, and legal empowerment issues and approaches.
● Inequalities related to reproduction and reproductive technologies.
● Perspectives on exploitation and resistance movements.
● Transnational/International/Comparative feminist critiques of any topic.

We especially welcome proposals that would permit us to collaborate with other CRNs and that are (give the multidisciplinary character of LSA) multidisciplinary in approach. We strongly encourage colleagues from the Global South and indigenous colleagues to submit proposals.

Our goal is to stimulate focused discussion of papers on which scholars are currently working. Thus, while proposals may reference work that is well on the way to publication, we are particularly eager to solicit proposals for works-in-progress that are at an earlier stage and will benefit from the discussion that the panels will provide.

SUBMISSION TYPES
Per the LSA guidelines, there are several types of submissions:
1. Individual papers
2. Paper Sessions: Panels that are formed around a single theme. These consist of 4-5 paper presenters, 1 Chair and 1 Discussant (who can be the same person), and last 1 hour and 45 minutes.
3. Roundtables: These may be formed around a topic and consist of 4-8 participants, 1 Chair, and last 1 hour and 45 minutes.
4. Author Meets Reader (AMR): These are for scholarly books published in 2021. For more information, please see https://www.lawandsociety.org/author-meets-reader-newbooks- in-the-field/

LSA also encourages submission of other “creative” formats for this conference. If you have an idea that you think would work well in one of these formats, please let us know.

CRN PRIORITIES FOR THIS CONFERENCE
Individual paper submissions. The CRN gives preference this year to individual submissions. A committee of the CRN will assign individual papers to panels based on the subject. Our panels will use the conference format, which requires four papers, but we will continue our custom of assigning a chair for the panel and a commentator for each individual paper. As a condition of participating as a panelist, you must also agree to serve as a chair or commentator for another panel or participant. We will of course take into account your scheduling and topic preferences to the degree possible.

Pre-formed group submissions. Although we prefer individual paper submissions, we will consider pre-formed panels, roundtables, AMR sessions, and other group submissions that meet the following guidelines:
1. The presenters have not presented together at LSA before.
2. Junior colleagues are included.
3. A diversity of institutions are represented.
4. Interdisciplinary and international perspectives are included.

If you are already planning a conference session with at least four panelists and papers that you would like to see included in the Feminist Legal Theory CRN, please let the organizers know.

The duties of a chair are to organize the panel logistically, including registering it online with the LSA and moderating the panel. The chair will develop a 100–250-word description for the session and submit the session proposal to LSA before their upcoming deadline on November 10, 2021, so that each panelist can submit his or her proposal using the panel number assigned. Chairs will also be responsible for assigning commentators but may wait to do so until panels have been scheduled later this winter.

The duties of a commentator are to read a minimum of two papers and provide verbal comments as well as brief written (email is fine) comments.

SUBMISSION PROCESS AND GUIDELINES
Individual Papers: Please email your abstract, up to three key terms (e.g., International law, violence against women, criminal law), and whether you will be virtual to 1femnistlegaltheory@gmail.com with the Email Subject: Individual Paper Last Name.

Panels and Roundtables: Please email your abstract and up to three key terms (e.g., International law, violence against women, criminal law) and all proposal members, identifying chair and discussant and whether any member will be virtual to
1femnistlegaltheory@gmail.com with the Email Subject: Panel Proposal or Roundtable Proposal Last Name.

Author Meets Reader Panels: Please email your book title and all panel members, identify chair and, whether any panelist will be virtual to 1femnistlegaltheory@gmail.com with the Email Subject: AMR Proposal Last Name.

Please remember that group proposals that are repeated from previous years, that are composed of scholars from a single institution, that contain no junior scholars and other forms of diversity may be rejected.

Be sure to first carefully read the LSA guidelines for submission formats here:
https://www.lawandsociety.org/types-of-submissions/. Please note that LSA rules limit you to participating only once as a paper panelist or roundtable participant.

Please submit all proposals by Friday, October 29. This will permit us to organize papers into panels (and potentially other formats) and submit them prior to the LSA’s deadline on November 10. If we are unable to accept your proposal for the CRN, we will notify you by early November so that you can submit an independent proposal to the conference.

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
Please send any questions or comments to the CRN email address: 1femnistlegaltheory@gmail.com. Please do not send questions or submissions to individual committee members or in response to this email.

We look forward to the conference and hope you’ll join us in Lisbon or virtually to discuss our scholarship and connect with others doing work on feminist legal theory.

Best,
LSA Planning Committee
Cyra Akila Choudhury (co-chair)
Elizabeth MacDowell (co-chair)
April Cherry
Laura Kessler
Anibal Rosario-Lebron
Sheila Velez Martin
Ezgi Şerif

Symposium 10/15 Reproducing Injustice: Covid-19, Reproduction, and the Law

Reproducing Injustice: Covid-19, Reproduction, and the Law, Drexel Law School, Oct. 15

Reproductive rights are under attack in the United States, with a record number of restrictive abortion bills introduced in state legislatures this year alone. The United States continues to report high rates of maternal mortality and morbidity, with pregnant people of color at greater risk of adverse health outcomes related to childbirth and experiencing mistreatment by their health care providers at disproportionately high rates. In addition, gaps in access to health care, legal services, and other critical resources mean that many poor people and people of color face particular burdens as parents trying to raise their children in safe and healthy environments. Political divisions regarding reproduction have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. As we look forward to a post-pandemic future, it seems important to ask: What kinds of trends do we see as we consider reproductive health and rights through the lens of the pandemic? How can lessons from the COVID-19 era inform future efforts to increase access to health services, defend reproductive rights, and promote reproductive justice? The Drexel Law Review Volume XIV presents Reproducing Injustice: COVID-19, Reproduction, and the Law, a symposium designed to facilitate a conversation about reproductive health and rights in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and what we can take away from the past year and a half to advocate for reproductive justice moving forward.

RSVP

ABA Webinar Today on Women's Rights, Cultural Heritage Preservation, and Economic Relief in Afghanistan

Today from 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. EST the ABA is hosting a free webinar titled Afghanistan on the Brink: Risk Assessments for Women’s Rights, Cultural Heritage Preservation and Economic Relief. The program description looks timely and relevant to blog readers. 

This panel of experts considers the urgency for women’s rights, cultural heritage preservation, and economic relief in Afghanistan. As of 2020, approximately 90% of Afghans lived below the poverty level of $2 per day, according to the US Congressional Research Service. At the same time, minerals generate just $1 billion in Afghanistan per year. Analysts estimate that 30% to 40% of returns are siphoned off by corruption as well as by warlords and the Taliban, which has presided over small mining projects. The World Bank warned that the economy remains "shaped by fragility and aid dependence.” Additionally, this panel explores how climate change has served as a threat multiplier for conflict and regional instability. Despite these obstacles, experts share insights on how to move beyond the current situation to harness potential for female education, women’s economic empowerment, and cultural heritage preservation. Information will be shared on how to assist those impacted directly through ABA and ABA partner institutions. 

Midwest Political Science Conference Now Accepting Submissions

Many scholars of Gender & the Law may be working on projects that align with the upcoming Call for Papers posted by the Midwest Political Science Conference. The conference will be held in a hybrid format from April 7-10 based in Chicago, Illinois. Proposals are due by October 8, 2021.  

The MPSA Annual Conference historically hosts more than 5,000 attendees from 60+ countries across more than 90 political interest areas. The conference brings together scholars, researchers and decision makers in the political science community to exchange information and address the latest scholarship in political science.

 

CFP Applied Feminism and The Big Idea

APPLIED FEMINISM AND “THE BIG IDEA”

The Center on Applied Feminism at the University of Baltimore School of Law seeks paper proposals for the Thirteenth Annual Feminist Legal Theory Conference.  We hope you will join us for this exciting conference on Friday, April 8, 2022.  This year, we aim to capture, develop, and disseminate cutting edge theorizing around issues of gender equity and intersectionality. 

We are in a tumultuous period of history in which we are grappling with a global health pandemic and sharp political polarization, while also experiencing flourishing movements for racial and gender justice.  This is a time for innovation and creativity — for highlighting ideas that create a more just society. We want to explore how feminist legal theory is responding and growing during this time and bridging toward a future of greater gender and intersectional justice. Thus, we seek submissions of papers that have “big ideas” about issues related to feminist legal theory and other critical legal theories from a variety of substantive disciplines and perspectives. As always, the Center’s conference will serve as a forum for scholars, practitioners, and activists to share ideas about applied feminism, focusing on connections between theory and practice to effectuate social change. The conference will be open to the public and will feature a keynote speaker. Past keynote speakers have included Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, Dr. Maya Angelou, and Gloria Steinem.

To submit a paper proposal, by Friday, October 29, 2021, please complete this form and include your 500 word abstract: https://forms.gle/L4rdht7te3WuRTtPA We will notify presenters of selected papers by early December. About half the presenter slots will be reserved for authors who commit to publishing in the annual symposium volume of the University of Baltimore Law Review. Thus, the form requests that you indicate if you interested in publishing in the University of Baltimore Law Review's symposium issue. Authors who are interested in publishing in the Law Review will be strongly considered for publication. For all presenters, working drafts of papers will be due no later than March 18, 2022. Presenters are responsible for their own travel costs; the conference will provide a discounted hotel rate as well as meals.

We look forward to your submissions. If you have further questions, please contact Prof. Michele Gilman at mgilman@ubalt.edu. For additional information about the conference, please visit law.ubalt.edu/caf.

Feminist Legal Theory Sessions at Law & Society Meeting this Week

This week at the Law & Society Association annual meeting (by Zoom), the Feminist Legal Theory Collaborative Research Network will offer 26 sessions from May 26 to May 30.

Here is a listing and description of the FLT Program.

Download FLT-CRN events at LSA 2021

For more information about the rest of the Law & Society program, see Law & Society Conference 2021

Conference: Beyond Western Hegemonies of International Law and Feminist Theory

Cornell Law School & London South Bank University are hosting an exciting global online conference on Friday, March 26, 2021, entitled  "Beyond Western Hegemonies of International Law and Feminist Theory." The central theme of this conference will focus on the legacies and repercussions of the hegemony of Western thought within both feminist research and practice in the sphere of international law and attempts and proposals for overcoming these. Professor Chandra Mohanty, a pioneer and expert in women's and gender studies will be delivering the keynote entitled “Transnational Feminism as Insurgent Praxis.”

The full conference schedule and registration details are available here: https://support.law.cornell.edu/conferences/TLF/

Symposium: Intersections in Legal Gender Equality and Voting Rights One Hundred Years After the Nineteenth Amendment, Minnesota Law Review

Symposium “Glass Ceilings, Glass Walls: Intersections in Legal Gender Equality and Voting Rights One Hundred Years After the Nineteenth Amendment," Minnesota Law Review, April 1 & 2, 2021

The Nineteenth Amendment was a milestone for women’s rights but has often been criticized for being passed at the expense of people of color. Our 2020-21 Symposium will look back on the one hundred years since women were given the right to vote using a rough chronological approach. We will open the day with a historical overview of the Nineteenth Amendment, discussing who contributed to its ratification and who was left out after its passage. This background will create a basis for our subsequent gender equality conversations around the Equal Rights Amendment, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation, and the #MeToo Movement, culminating in a panel discussing the current state of voting rights. Our Keynote speaker Desmond Meade will present about his role in fighting for legislative change in Florida to restore the right to vote to 1.4 million Floridians.

Registration for the Symposium is free and CLE credits are expected.

Symposium Speakers and Authors

Keynote Speaker: Desmond Meade, President and Executive Director of Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC)

As President and Executive Director of FRRC, which is recognized for its work on voting and criminal justice reform issues, Desmond led the FRRC to a historic victory in 2018 with the successful passage of Amendment 4, a grassroots citizen’s initiative which restored voting rights to over 1.4 million Floridians with past felony convictions. Amendment 4 represented the single largest expansion of voting rights in the United States in half a century and brought an end to 150 years of a Jim Crow-era law in Florida. Desmond is the author of the book “Let My People Vote” which shares the great journey of him crossing the finish line in restoring 1.8 million citizens’ right to vote.

Kat Calvin, Founder and Executive Director of Spread The Vote and Co-Founder and CEO of the Project ID Action Fund

Jessica Clarke, Professor of Law and FedEx Research Professor and Co-Director of the George Barrett Social Justice Program, Vanderbilt Law School

Jill Elaine Hasday, Distinguished McKnight University Professor and Centennial Professor in Law, University of Minnesota Law School

Phylicia H. Hill, Counsel, Economic Justice Project, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Martha S. Jones, Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History and the SNF Agora Institute, John Hopkins University

Serena Mayeri, Professor of Law and History, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School

Terry Ao Minnis, Senior Director of Census and Voting Programs, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC, and Senior Fellow, Democracy Fund

Tracy A. Thomas, Seiberling Chair of Constitutional Law and Director of the Center for Constitutional Law, University of Akron School of Law

Kyle C Velte, Associate Professor of Law, University of Kansas School of Law

Joan C. Williams, Distinguished Professor of Law, Hastings Foundation Chair and Director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, Hastings Law

12th Feminist Legal Theory Conference: Applied Feminism and Privacy

Conference 12th Feminist Legal Theory Conference: Applied Feminism & Privacy

We hope you will join the Center on Applied Feminism at the University of Baltimore School of Law for this exciting conference on April 22-23, 2021. The theme is Applied Feminism and Privacy. As always, the conference focuses on the intersection of gender and race, class, gender identity, ability, and other personal identities. We are excited that Fatima Goss Graves , president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, has agreed to serve as our keynote speaker.

We are at a critical time for a broad range of privacy issues. State-level abortion bans have put a spotlight on the importance of decisional privacy to women’s equality. Across America, advocates are fighting for reproductive justice and strategizing to preserve long-settled rights.

At the same time, our informational privacy is increasingly precarious. Data brokers, app designers, and social media platforms are gathering and selling personal data in highly gendered ways. As a result, women have been targeted with predatory marketing, intentionally excluded from job opportunities, and subject to menstrual tracking by marketers and employers. In online spaces, women have been objectified, cyber-stalked, and subject to revenge porn.

With regard to physical privacy, the structural intersectionality of over-policing and mass incarceration impacts women of color and other women. And while a man’s home may be his castle, low-income women are expected to allow government agents into their homes – and to turn over reams of other personal information -- as a condition of receiving state support. In addition, families of all forms are navigating the space of constitutionally protected family privacy in relation to legal parentage, marriage and cohabitation, and child welfare systems.

In this conference, we will explore such questions as: Is privacy dead, as often claimed? If so, what does this mean for women? How can privacy reinforce or challenge existing inequalities? How has feminist legal theory wrestled with privacy and what lessons can we draw from past debates? What advocacy will best advance privacy protections that benefit women? How do emerging forms of surveillance impact women? Can intersectional perspectives on privacy lead to greater justice? Who defines the “right to privacy,” and what do those understandings mean for women? How is privacy related to other values, such as autonomy, anti-subordination, vulnerability, justice and equality?

Register for Thursday's sessions here.
Register for Friday's sessions here.

12th Annual Feminist Legal Theory Conference Applied Feminism and Privacy April 22 & 23, 2021 via Zoom
Thursday, April 22, 2021
4:00-6:30	Achieving Menstrual Justice: Law and Activism
	Panel One: Menstrual Justice and Activism Across Employment, Homelessness, Education, and Data Privacy Margaret E. Johnson, Associate Dean for Experiential Education, Professor of Law, and Co-Director, Center on Applied Feminism, University of Baltimore School of Law, Menstrual Justice Marcy Karin, Jack and Lovell Olender Professor of Law and Director of the Legislation Clinic, David A. Clarke School of Law, University of the District of Columbia, Menstruation at Work Marni Sommer, Associate Professor, Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, Menstruation and Homelessness Michele Gilman, Venable Professor of Law and Co-Director, Center on Applied Feminism, University of Baltimore School of Law, Menstrual Apps and Privacy Panel Two: Focus on Menstrual Justice in Schools Laura Strausfeld, Co-Founder, Period Equity, Menstrual Equity, Comprehensive Sex Education, and Title IX Diana Philip, Executive Director, NARALProChoice Maryland, Menstrual Equity as Reproductive Justice Alana Glover, Symposium Editor, University of Baltimore Law Review, Menstrual Equity & UB Law Christopher A. Cotropia, Dennis I. Belcher Professor of Law, Director, Intellectual Property Institute, University of Richmond School of Law, Period Poverty & School Attendance/Performance

Friday, April 23, 2021
9:00-9:15	Welcome and Opening Remarks
	Ronald Weich, Dean, University of Baltimore School of Law Margaret E. Johnson, Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Experiential Education, and Co-Director, Center on Applied Feminism, University of Baltimore School of Law J.J. Lucido, Editor-in-Chief, and Christian Coward Symposium Editor, University of Baltimore Law Review
9:15-10:15	Panel One: Controlling Personal Data in The Digital Age
	Kendra Albert, Clinical Instructor, Harvard Law School, The Double Binds of Transgender Privacy Cynthia Conti Cook, Civil Rights Lawyer and Law & Technology Resarcher, and Brook Kelly-Green, Program Officer, Gender, Racial and Ethnic Justice, Ford Foundation, Data for Reproductive Autonomy or Surveillance? The Role of New Technology in Criminalizing Pregnant People Lynn Daggett, Smithmoore P. Myers Chair and Professor of Law, Gonzaga University School of Law, Gender and Student Medical Privacy Nicole McConlogue, Associate Professor of Law and Clinic Director, West Virginia University College of Law (moderator)
10:15-10:45	Break Rooms Open for Coffee and Discussion
	Room 1:    Data Privacy as Social Justice Room 2:    Academic & Activist Social Mingle
10:45-12:00	Panel Two: Resisting Intrusions into Physical Privacy
	Jenny Brooke Condon, Professor of Law, Director, Equal Justice Clinic, Seton Hall Law School, Uncaging Privacy:  What "Me Too" Means for the Fight Against Sexual Violence and Coercion in U.S. Prisons and Jails Michelle Ewert, Associate Professor of Law, Washburn University School of Law, Their Home Is Not Their Castle: Subsidized Housing’s Intrusion into Family Privacy and Decisional Autonomy Susan Hazeldean, Associate Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School, Privacy as Pretext Sapna Khatri, Attorney, Advocacy and Policy Counsel at the ACLU of Illinois, From Rosary to Camera: The Shift in Protesting Tactics Jeopardizing the Privacy of Patients Shanta Trivedi, Clinical Teaching Fellow, Georgetown University Law Center (moderator)
12:00-12:30	Break Rooms Open for Lunch and Discussion
	Room 1:  Pitching and Writing Op-eds on Privacy Topics Room 2:  Reproductive Justice Agenda:  What’s Now/Next?
12:30-1:30	Keynote
	Fatima Goss Graves, CEO and President, National Women’s Law Center
1:30-1:45	Break
1:45-3:00	Panel Three: Protecting Decisional Autonomy To Shape Identity And Families
	Deborah Brake, John E. Murray Faculty Scholar and Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, andJoanna Grossman, Ellen K. Solender Endowed Chair in Women and the Law and Professor of Law, SMU Dedman School of Law, Beyond Pregnancy: Title IX and Reproductive Rights Laura Kessler, Professor of Law, University of Utah, Miscarriage of Justice: Early Pregnancy Loss and the Limits of U.S. Employment Discrimination Law Anibal Rosario Lebrón, Assistant Professor of Lawyering Skills, Howard University School of Law, Weaponizing Civil Liberties: A Crisis Lens Analysis to Sex, Gender, and Sexuality Equality Lynn Lu, Associate Professor of Law and Co-Director, Economic Justice Project, CUNY School of Law, Anti-Poverty or Anti-Privacy? Reimagining Welfare through Restorative Justice and “Radical Help” Emily Poor, Clinical Teaching Fellow, University of Baltimore School of Law (moderator)
3:00	Closing Remarks
	Michele Gilman, Venable Professor of Law and Co-Director, Center on Applied Feminism, University of Baltimore School of Law

 

 

 

Symposium: COVID Care Crisis and the Impact on Women in Legal Academia

Symposium, COVID Care Crisis, Jan. 14 & 15 (Zoom) (registration free)

The COVID care crisis and other multiplying effects of related shutdowns, embedded inequalities, and health and safety risks are likely disproportionately impacting people with caregiving responsibilities in academia. The division that separates work from home has collapsed, threatening the very notion of “work-life balance.” Increasingly, employers have begun to reshape what used to be the private domain of family and home through “work at home” or in-person presence requirements that disregard the ways in which care work happens.

At the same time, schools and other institutions providing support to families and marginalized groups are temporarily closed, permanently shutting down, or buckling in response to state or local mandates as well as financial and personnel pressures.

In the months since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, women’s scholarly output and publications have dropped in various disciplines, while service and care responsibilities that fall disproportionately on junior or marginalized faculty and staff have likely increased. Compounding these pressures, Black faculty and faculty of color more generally have also been coping with the emotional effects of the police killings of George Floyd and others, at the same time that COVID-19’s health effects are concentrating along lines of race and inequality in these communities specifically. All of these factors threaten the output, visibility, status and participation of women and other primary caregiving faculty and staff in legal academia.

Left unaddressed, these disparities also have the potential to alter the landscape of legal academia and further marginalize women and the perspectives they bring to legal scholarship, education, and public dialogue. This symposium seeks to raise awareness of the current COVID care crisis and its impacts on academia, and to begin a dialogue on concrete and innovative responses to this crisis.

Conference-- Title IX, MeToo and Administrative Law: Responding to Backlash and Looking to the Future

Title IX, MeToo, & Administrative Law: Responding to Backlash & Looking to the Future

 

REGISTER HERE

 

Description

 

Welcome & Panel One (8:00-9:50am PT): “Due Process” Narratives, Standards of Evidence, & Other Backlash Controversies, 2014-2016

Panel Two (10:00-11:40am PT): Litigation Challenges to Trump/DeVos Administrative Actions, 2017-present

Panel Three (11:50-1:30pm PT): #MeToo, the Blasey-Ford/Kavanaugh Hearings & the National Impact of Sexual Harassment, 2017-present

Panel Four & Symposium Wrap-Up (1:40-3:30pm PT): The Future Under a Biden-Harris vs. Trump II Administration

Confirmed Panelists and Moderators:
· Lindy Aldrich, Ladder Consulting
· Kelly Behre, UC Davis Law
· Deborah Brake, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
· Hannah Brenner-Johnson, California Western School of Law
· Erin Buzuvis, Western New England University School of Law
· Sage Carson & Sarah Nesbitt, Know Your IX
· Shelley Cavalieri, University of Toledo College of Law
· Nancy Chi Cantalupo, California Western School of Law
· Jessica Fink, California Western School of Law
· Maha Ibrahim, Equal Rights Advocates
· William Kidder, UCLA Civil Rights Project
· Naomi Mann, Kelsey Scarlett & Lexi Weyrick, Boston University School of Law
· Victoria Nourse, Georgetown University Law Center
· Emily Martin & Shiwali Patel, National Women’s Law Center
· Amelia Parnell, NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education
· Lynn Rosenthal, Co-chair, Obama Administration White House Task Force to Protect
· Samuel Bagenstos, University of Michigan Law School
Students from Sexual Assault
· Jodi Short, UC Hastings College of Law
· Amanda Walsh, Victim Rights Law Center
· Lua Yuille, University of Kansas School of Law

CFP Con Law Center Symposium: Examining Black Citizenship from Reconstruction to Black Lives Matter

Call for Papers: Examining Black Citizenship from Reconstruction to Black Lives Matter

The Center for Constitutional Law at Akron
Virtual Symposium (online)
Friday, Feb. 5, 2021, 9am to 5pm

This year celebrates 150 years of the Fifteenth Amendment, 100 years of the Nineteenth Amendment, 55 years of the Voting Rights Act, and just over 55 years of Title VII. Each of these laws brought some systemic change to the participation of Black citizens in the polity. This symposium will explore the ways in which the reconstructed Constitution intended or neglected to establish political and civil citizenship rights regardless of race. Drawing on current social movements like Black Lives Matter, MeToo, SayHerName, and Defund the Police, this academic discussion reflects on the role of law in creating, sustaining, and resolving the identified problems.

Topics for presentation in the broad umbrella of this symposium might include: how social movements transform or engage the law, how academics translate social movements, a reconstructed history of the 15th or 19th Amendment, the Jim Crow and Jane Crow eras and their continuing effects, current battles for voting rights regarding felons, polling restrictions, and other limitations with disparate impact, intersectional dimensions of justice including Black feminism, the causes and consequences of Black Lives Matter, vestiges of slavery, reparations for slavery, policing reform, mass incarceration, judicial remedies for citizenship violations, and/or the gendered differences of black citizenship rights.

The Virtual Symposium is sponsored by the Center for Constitutional Law at Akron. The Center is one of four national centers established by Congress on the bicentennial for the purpose of promoting scholarship and education on matters of constitutional law. The Center includes five affiliated faculty fellows, student fellows, an online journal, ConLawNOW, a JD certificate program in constitutional law, a social justice project, and a Masters of Law in social justice.

Papers presented will be published in a symposium edition of ConLawNOW. ConLawNOW is an online, open-access journal that is also indexed in Westlaw, Lexis, and Hein. It is designed to publish shorter works of 10-20 pages within a short editorial timeframe to get scholarship into the public discourse more quickly. Recent authors published in ConLawNOW include Larry Solum, Paula Monopoli, Ernie Young, Harold Koh, Helen Norton, Judge Jeffrey Sutton, Ruthann Robson, and Julie Suk.

Those interested in presenting a paper should submit a proposal detailing the intended presentation to Professor Tracy Thomas, Director of the Center for Constitutional Law, at thomast@uakron.edu by December 1.  Draft papers should then be submitted by January 20, 2021 for circulation among the other participants for the symposium. Final papers will be due by March 1, 2021, and expected to publish by early April.