Equity and Inclusion in the Classroom
Our primary goal at the Law School is to provide the best and highest quality of legal education. Eleanor Barrett, the Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs identified two core pillars of curriculum,”what are we teaching and who is teaching it?” One way the Law School has worked to uphold these pillars is to recruit faculty through different channels and with diverse scholarly backgrounds. For this academic year, the Law School has added three standing professors and welcomes six additional notable teachers who bring a wide array of perspectives to our classrooms. Read their biographies here. A second strategy to fostering a better learning environment is to identify gaps in curriculum and ensure that it recognizes the interdisciplinary nature of the law. Recent efforts to enhance students’ educational experience have led to the design of courses that examine critical race theory and provide a pathway to racial literacy for all students.
For Fall 2020, the Law School designed three new courses including Power, Injustice, and Change in America led by Professor Sutcliffe, Voting Rights Seminar with Professor Ross, and Policy Lab: Model Sexual Harassment Policy World Bank with Professor de Silva De Alwis. Each course offers invaluable insight about reoccurring injustices that often disproportionately impact communities of color. Each course reinforces the opportunity students have to serve as advocates and policy influencers within the legal profession.
This Spring, the Law School is offering eight additional elective courses to further infuse equity and inclusion in the classroom. These courses will be taught by experts who mirror our diverse student body and have a proven record of caring deeply about equity. These courses include Law and Inequality co-taught by Professor Tani and Professor Ossei-Owusu, Intro to US Privacy Law: The Lens of Race with Professor Allen, Gender and the Law with Professor Mayeri, Leadership in Law with Professor Sandman, Critical Multimodal Qualitative Research with Professor Austin, Leading Social Change co-taught by Professor Jealous and Professor Schwartz, Workplace Equality with Professor Johnson and Professor Willis, and Law, Technology and Access to Justice with Professor Liu.
New additions to curriculum will not only enhance our academic program but encourage students to deepen their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion far beyond their education.
For full course descriptions and information, visit the equity and inclusion course page.
