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Selected Resource: DEI and the Law School Curriculum
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Toward A Race-Conscious Pedagogy in Legal Education, 11 Nat'l Black L. J. 1 (1988)
Crenshaw's groundbreaking article focuses on the problematic norm of perspectivelessness in law schools and the need to allow for racially informed analysis.
Frances Lee Ansley, Race and the Core Curriculum in Legal Education, 79 Calif. L. Rev. 1511 (1991)
Professor Ansley argues that in light of the history of the Constitution, the legal academy should be in a better position than the rest of the university to achieve broad consensus on an issue that has proved divisive elsewhere: the centrality of race to our discipline and its core texts.
Bonny L. Tavares, Changing the Construct: Promoting Cross-Cultural Conversations in the Law School Classroom, 67 J. Legal Educ. 211 (2017)
Discusses the pedagogical and institutional advantages of promoting cross-cultural awareness. Also covers best practices and techniques for creating a positive classroom environment and for dealing with resistance and incivility.
Margalynne J. Armstrong and Stephanie M. Wildman, Teaching Race/Teaching Whiteness: Transforming Colorblindness to Color Insight, 86 N.C.L. Rev. 635 (2008)
Provides classroom techniques and institutional programming that would foster a more complete understanding of the function of race and whiteness in the law.
Harvard Law and Political Economy Student Group, Alternative Curriculum Syllabus
From the Harvard LPE Student Group: "This syllabus is a suggestion of readings organized around the 1L Curriculum aimed to challenge various assumptions underlying the law. Instead of the typical structure and content of core courses, which tend to obscure their significant implications for social justice, inequality, and democracy, this syllabus aims to clarify the stakes. We recommend forming reading groups with other students to discuss these texts or reading them on your own. We hope these materials may be the first steps in framing a longer, richer conversation."
