S. Critical Race Theory Workshop

This seminar explores the interdisciplinary scholarship on "race," racism and law known as Critical Race Theory (CRT). The seminar will pursue two main, overlapping goals. The first is to introduce key concepts associated with CRT, and to map the modes of inquiry critical race theorists have developed to examine the uses of race and racial discourse in U.S. law. The second is to apply CRT frameworks in student-directed theoretical and action based research on the uses and limits of law and lawyering in contemporary racial justice and human rights advocacy. This year, the seminar will undertake an extended case study of the campaigns to end "prison slavery" and compulsory prison labor in the U.S., with a special focus on the legal efforts to amend the federal (Thirteenth Amendment) and state constitutional provisions that authorize "involuntary servitude" as a punishment for crime. Weekly seminar meetings will focus on close reading, viewing, discussion or production of a broad range of materials: case law, statutes and administrative regulations; scholarly writing in law, history, politics, and social and cultural theory; the performance arts, film and video, journalism and new media platforms.

By the end of the semester, seminar members may expect to have a firm grasp of the key terms, genealogy and development of CRT as a scholarly movement; to understand the main points of convergence and divergence between CRT and conservative, liberal and left discourses on race and rights in the "post-civil rights" era; and to develop an applied, experiential perspective on how CRT can be used as a theoretical and practical tool by social movement advocates and activists.