Legal scholar Khiara M. Bridges will deliver the keynote address at the seventh annual Shaping Justice conference at the University of Virginia School of Law.

The student-run conference, “Safeguarding Bodily Autonomy: Examining the Intersections of Health and Justice,” will take place Feb. 3.

Bridges, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, is an expert on race, class and reproductive rights, and how the three topics intersect. She taught a course on the subject at UVA Law in 2021. Bridges is the author of three books: “Reproducing Race: An Ethnography of Pregnancy as a Site of Racialization,” “The Poverty of Privacy Rights” and “Critical Race Theory: A Primer.” She is a co-editor of a reproductive justice book series that is published with the University of California Press.

Bridges will speak at 5 p.m. in Caplin Pavilion.

Aimed at inspiring students and lawyers to promote justice through public service, the conference will also feature an awards ceremony to honor alumni working in public interest roles. Anne Swerlick ’77 will receive the Shaping Justice Award for Extraordinary Achievement, and Laurel Sakai ’11 will receive the Shaping Justice Rising Star Award. Panels of experts will discuss topics on reproductive justice, health care in correctional facilities and detention centers, climate change and indigenous health, and more.

The conference is sponsored by UVA Law’s Mortimer Caplin Public Service Center and Program in Law and Public Service, the student-run Public Interest Law Association and numerous other student organizations. The event is open to the public and parking is available in D2 lots.

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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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