Lillian Hellman's Crusade: Civil Liberties in an Age of Lies

October 25, 2007 (NEW YORK) – Columbia University’s Alice Kessler-Harris will discuss Lillian Hellman’s role as a leading voice in the 1970s fight for American civil liberties. Hellman, a playwright, memoirist and activist, played a crucial part in forming the Committee for Public Justice, a group of writers, lawyers, scientists and educators that was responsible for getting the Nixon tapes released to the public.

WHAT: “Lillian Hellman’s Crusade: Civil Liberties in an Age of Lies.” Professor Alice Kessler-Harris lectures on Lillian Hellman’s leadership in the 1970s fight for civil liberties. Reception to follow.

WHEN: Thursday, November 1, 2007, 4:30 p.m.

WHERE: Columbia Law School, William and June Warren Hall, Room L107, 1125 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY. Via subway: #1 train to 116 Street (Broadway)/Columbia University.

Alice Kessler-Harris, R. Gordon Hoxie Professor of History at Columbia University, specializes in the history of American labor and the comparative and interdisciplinary exploration of women and gender. She is an affiliated faculty member of Columbia Law School, where she co-teaches a seminar on motherhood to graduate and law students.

Kessler-Harris’ published works include “Women Have Always Worked: A Historical Overview” (1981); “Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States” (1982); “A Woman’s Wage: Historical Meanings and Social Consequences” (1990); “In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in Twentieth Century America” (2001); and “Gendering Labor History” (2007).

Kessler-Harris’ talk is part of the Barbara Aronstein Black Lectures on Women and Law, which focus on significant work about or by women in law. Past speakers include former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and president of Ireland Mary Robinson, law professor and feminist scholar Catharine A. MacKinnon, and former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Louise Arbour. Launched in 1998, the series is named for Columbia Law School professor and former dean Barbara Black.

Event flyer available here.

Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, stands at the forefront of legal education and of the law in a global society. Columbia Law School joins traditional strengths in international and comparative law, constitutional law, administrative law, business law and human rights law with pioneering work in the areas of intellectual property, digital technology, sexuality and gender, and criminal law.