TaxProf Blog Spotlights Faculty Enrichment Lecture Series

On April 16, the TaxProf Blog spotlighted the Boyd School of Law's Faculty Enrichment series in an article titled "Peroni Presents Formulary Apportionment in the U.S. at UNLV."

Robert Peroni, a professor at the School of Law at the University of Texas at Austin, spoke on April 14 as a part of the Faculty Enrichment lecture series, which is organized by Boyd's Associate Dean and Professor Thomas Main.

As associate dean, Professor Main has used his contacts in the academy to bring to Boyd a prestigious group of scholars from around the world.

Boyd to Host Pro Lectureship on February 21

The Boyd School of Law is very pleased to announce that it will host the Annual Philip Pro Lectureship in Legal History on Thursday, February 21, 2013.

This year's Pro Lecture will be delivered by Tomiko Brown-Nagin, JD, PhD, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, and Professor of History, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Brown-Nagin will speak about her book, Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement, published by Oxford University Press in 2011. Among many other awards, Courage to Dissent received the prestigious 2012 Bancroft Prize in U.S. History.

In her sweeping history of the Civil Rights movement in Atlanta -- the South's largest and most economically important city -- from the 1940s through 1980, Dr. Brown-Nagin shows that the movement featured a vast array of activists and many sophisticated approaches to activism. Long before "black power" emerged and gave black dissent from the mainstream civil rights agenda a new name, African Americans in Atlanta debated the meaning of equality and the steps necessary to obtain social and economic justice.

Dr. Brown-Nagin's groundbreaking book uncovers the activism of visionaries--both well-known legal figures and unsung citizens--from across the ideological spectrum who sought something different from, or more complicated than, "integration." Local activists often played leading roles in carrying out the integrationist agenda of the NAACP, but some also pursued goals that differed markedly from those of the venerable civil rights organization. Dr. Brown-Nagin discusses debates over politics, housing, public accommodations, and schools. She documents how the bruising battle over school desegregation in the 1970s, which featured opposing camps of African Americans, had its roots in the years before Brown v. Board of Education.

Exploring the complex interplay between the local and national, between lawyers and communities, between elites and grassroots, and between middle-class and working-class African Americans, Courage to Dissent tells gripping stories about the long struggle for equality that speak to the nation's current urban crisis. This remarkable book will transform our understanding of the Civil Rights era.

The Annual Philip Pro Lectureship in Legal History is free and open to the public. No RSVP required. Please join us on Thursday, February 21, 2013, at 7:30 p.m., in the Thomas & Mack Moot Court Facility. A reception will immediately follow Dr. Brown-Nagin's presentation. For more information regarding the lectureship, click here.

Boyd to Host Lecture on Masculinities and the Law

The Boyd School of Law is very pleased to announce that it will host a lecture entitled, "What's Masculinity Got to Do with It?: Gender, Pop Culture, and Law," on Monday, January 28, 2013. The lecture will be given by William S. Boyd Professor of Law Ann C. McGinley and Suffolk Professor of Law Frank Rudy Cooper at 4:30 p.m. in Room 102 at Boyd School of Law. The lecture has been approved for one CLE credit.

The lecture will be based on McGinley and Cooper's recently published book, Masculinities and the Law: A Multidimensional Approach. According to masculinities theory, masculinity is not a biological imperative but a social construction. Men engage in a constant struggle with other men to prove their masculinity. Masculinities and the Law develops a multidimensional approach. It sees categories of identity—including various forms of raced-, classed-, and sex-oriented masculinities—as operating simultaneously and creating different effects in different contexts. By applying multidimensional masculinities theory to law, McGinley and Cooper's cutting-edge collection both expands the field of masculinities and develops new thinking about important issues in feminist and critical race theories. Topics covered in the book include how norms of masculinity influence the behavior of policemen, firefighters, and international soldiers on television and in the real world; employment discrimination against masculine cocktail waitresses and all transgendered employees; the legal treatment of fathers in the U.S. and the ways unauthorized migrant fathers use the dangers of border crossing to boost their masculine esteem; how Title IX fails to curtail the masculinity of sport; the racist assumptions behind the prison rape debate; the surprising roots of homophobia in Jamaican dancehall music; and the contradictions of the legal debate over women veiling in Turkey. Ultimately, the book argues that multidimensional masculinities theory can change how law is interpreted and applied.

Professor McGinley has taught at Boyd School of Law since 1999. A cum laude 1982 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and an editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Professor McGinley clerked for the Honorable Joseph S. Lord, III of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and practiced commercial, employment, and civil rights law. Professor McGinley is an internationally recognized scholar in the area of employment law, employment discrimination and disability law and a leader in "Multidimensional Masculinities and the Law," an emerging discipline that applies masculinities theory from social sciences to legal interpretation. She has published more than 30 law review articles and numerous book chapters on employment law and anti-discrimination law. Professor McGinley is also co-author of Disability Law: Cases, Materials, Problems, Fifth Edition (LexisNexis) (with Laura Rothstein). In addition, her book in progress, which will be published by New York University Press in 2013, is entitled, Through a Different Lens: Multidimensional Masculinities and Employment Discrimination Law. Professor McGinley has taught at the University of Insubria, Italy, and has presented a lecture on sexual harassment to students enrolled in the master’s degree program in Labor Law at the Universidad de Adolfo Ibanez, Santiago, Chile. She has recently been invited to join the Academic Board of the Master’s in Labor Law program at the University of Adolfo Ibanez.

Professor Cooper is a tenured Professor at Suffolk University Law School in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Duke University Law School, where he served as a staff editor on the Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy. Prior to entering law teaching, he served as a federal district court judicial clerk, practiced law, and was a teaching assistant at Harvard University, where he won three teaching awards. At Suffolk, Professor Cooper has taught Constitutional Law; Constitutional Law/Criminal Procedure; Criminal Law; and Race, Gender & Law. A leader in national Law Professor organizations, Professor Cooper has served on the Boards of the Society of American Law Teachers, Latina/o Critical Legal Theory, and the John Mercer Langston Writing Workshop. His scholarly interests lie at the intersection of Criminal Procedure and Critical Race Feminism, especially as applied to policing and men of color.

Additional information regarding registration and CLE credit is available here.

Boyd to Host ACLU President Susan Herman

The Boyd School of Law is pleased to announce that it will host ACLU President Susan N. Herman for a talk entitled, "Myths and Missions: The ACLU's Agenda for the Obama Second Term and Beyond," on Friday, January 25, 2013, at 12:30 p.m.

In addition to her ACLU service, Herman also serves as the Centennial Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, where she teaches Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, Law and Literature, and Terrorism and Civil Liberties. A highly regarded authority in constitutional and criminal procedure topics, Herman is a prolific author in these areas. Her extensive writings have been published in scholarly and other publications, ranging from law reviews and books to periodicals and on-line publications. Herman's most recent book, Taking Liberties: The War on Terror and the Erosion of American Democracy (Oxford 2011) was awarded the 2012 Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize from the Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law. She is also author of The Right to a Speedy and Public Trial: A Reference Guide to the United States Constitution (Praeger Publishers 2006) and co-author of Terrorism, Government, and Law: National Authority and Local Autonomy in the War on Terror (Praeger Publishers 2008).

Boyd to Host 'Academe Meets Bar' Event

The Boyd School of Law is very pleased to announce that it will host a first-of-its-kind 'Academe Meets Bar: 2012 Books By Boyd Faculty Members with Relevance to the Practicing Bar' event on November 1, 2012.

The event, which will offer 1.0 hours of continuing legal education (CLE), will feature talks by four Boyd faculty members, including Professor Linda Edwards, Professor Jeff Stempel, Professor Jean Sternlight, and Professor Marketa Trimble.

Professor Linda Edwards will discuss her recent book, Readings in Persuasion: Briefs That Changed the World. Professor Jeff Stempel will discuss his Fundamentals of Litigation Practice. Professor Jean Sternlight will discuss her recent book, Psychology for Lawyers: Understanding the Human Factors in Negotiation, Litigation, and Decision Making. Professor Marketa Trimble will discuss her recent book, Global Patents: Limits of Transnational Enforcement.

The event will take place on November 1, 2012, from 4:00 to 5:20 p.m. in the Thomas & Mack Moot Court Facility. The event is free and open to the public.

Boyd to Host Hastings Dean Frank Wu

The Boyd School of Law is very pleased to announce that its Faculty Enrichment Committee will host University of California Hastings Chancellor and Dean Frank H. Wu for a talk on Thursday, October 4, 2012.

Chancellor and Dean Wu's research and writing emphasizes issues of diversity and civic engagement. His works include Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White, which was immediately reprinted in its hardcover edition, and Race, Rights and Reparation: Law and the Japanese American Internment, which he co-authored under a grant from the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund. He has written on a professional basis for magazines and newspapers, including The Washington Post, National Law Journal, and Chronicle of Higher Education.

The first Asian American to serve as Dean at UC Hastings, Chancellor and Dean Wu previously taught for a decade at Howard University. He also has taught at the law schools of George Washington University, University of Maryland, Columbia University, University of Michigan, Peking University, as well as in the undergraduate programs of Johns Hopkins University and Deep Springs College. He served as Dean of Wayne State University Law School in his hometown of Detroit.

Chancellor and Dean Wu's talk on October 4 will address his latest book project as well as the state of legal education today.