Conference on Critical Race Theory April 16-17

Twelve years after Yale Law School hosted a seminal conference on critical race theory that included some of CRT’s founding members, the Law School will once again bring together important voices in the field to look at the developments in critical race theory as an academic discipline and consider its applicability for legal practice and social justice advocacy.

“Frontiers in Social Justice Lawyering: Critical Race Revisited” will take place Thursday, April 16, and Friday, April 17, 2009, at Yale Law School. Panelists will examine the current state of critical race studies and the extent to which it has succeeded in shaping legal practice; use immigration law as a case study to explore the implications of critical race theory for emergent issues of race and racism in the law; and analyze the promise of legal education for producing lawyers who are both cognizant of structural discrimination in the law and equipped with strategies to address racial injustice.

Derrick Bell, visiting professor of law at New York University School of Law, will give opening remarks on Thursday evening, followed by a keynote address by Ian Haney Lopez of the University of California, Berkeley’s Boalt School of Law. Professor Lopez will speak on “Post-Racial Racism: Policing Race in the Age of Obama.” On Friday, Professor Sheila Foster will deliver the lunchtime address. Professor Foster is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Albert A. Walsh Professor of Law, and co-director of the Stein Center for Law & Ethics at Fordham Law School.    

The conference is being organized by the Yale Civil Rights Project and is co-sponsored by the Latino Law Students Association (LLSA), Pacific Islander, Asian, and Native American Law Students Association (PANA), the South Asian Law Students Association (SALSA), and the Black Law Students Association (BLSA). It is free and open to the public. 

For more information, including the full schedule of events and online registration, visit the conference website. If you have questions, please contact Sarah Mehta, sarah.mehta@yale.edu, or Margot Mendelson, margot.mendelson@yale.edu.