The University of Virginia School of Law has introduced four new short courses for the 2020-21 academic year sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race and Law.

“One of the benefits of the center’s short courses is our ability to bring in professors to teach classes that offer a more in-depth look at topics that are timely and important,” said Professor Kim Forde-Mazrui, the center’s director.

Bertrall Ross
Bertrall Ross

Professor Bertrall Ross will teach the fall short course Race, Law and Democracy. A professor at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, he examines the constitutional dimensions and the structural sources of the marginalization of the poor in the American political process. The class will explore how law has both advanced and impeded the development of a multiracial democracy in the United States, from early federal and state constitutions to Reconstruction to the civil rights era.

Khiara Bridges
Khiara M. Bridges

Professor Khiara M. Bridges will teach the January term course Reproductive Rights and Justice. Bridges is also on the Berkeley Law faculty, and has written many articles concerning race, class, reproductive rights, and the intersection of the three. In her course, students will explore the idea that the fight for equality and dignity in matters relating to reproduction continues beyond a successful argument that the Constitution ought to protect a “right” to privacy, to access contraception or to an abortion.

Juan F. Perea
Juan F. Perea

Professor Juan F. Perea will teach the spring short course Latinos and the Law. He teaches at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law and has written extensively on racial inequality, the legal history of race relations in the United States and the civil rights of Latinos. The course will cover the creation of U.S. Latino identity through conquest, colonization and immigration, and salient issues of discrimination against Latinos in the workplace, immigration law and criminal law.

Camille Gear Rich
Camille Gear Rich

Professor Camille Gear Rich will teach the spring seminar Racial Ambiguity Blues. A professor of law and sociology at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, Rich is known for her research on law, discrimination and identity formation issues related to race, class, gender and sexuality. Her course will look at three prevailing concepts of race currently used in the American legal system: biological race, performed race and physical race. Class discussions will also explore how market pressures shape definitions of race and whether government institutions have a role to play in regulating the use of race in commercial spaces.

Founded in 1819, the University of Virginia School of Law is the second-oldest continuously operating law school in the nation. Consistently ranked among the top law schools, Virginia is a world-renowned training ground for distinguished lawyers and public servants, instilling in them a commitment to leadership, integrity and community service.

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