Events and Speakers

The Center for Global Justice and the law school each year sponsor a number of speakers and events on contemporary topics of international and foreign law. Recent speakers have included Omar Dajani on Palestine (McGeorge School of Law); Heng Wang on Chinese Trade Law (Southwest University of Political Science and Law, China); Jorge Madrazo (UNAM, Mexico); Mauricio Rodriguez-Ferrara (La Universidad de los Andes, Venezuela); Anil Gupta on Indian Intellectual Property (Indian Institute of Management); and most recently Kamran Shafi on the War in Afghanistan.

Upcoming Events

Engaging Global South:  Terms of Engagement

 

Saturday, April 9, 2011.  9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in room 110

Global Justice and the Global South is the guiding theme of the Center for Global Justice at Seattle University School of Law.  However, we remain mindful of Benjamin Disraeli's (in)famous and evocative statement:  "The East is a career."  Therefore, our guiding theme warrants a continuing interrogation of some basic questions about the terms of engagement with the Global South -  Where is it? What is it?  How did it come to be what it is?  What is its history of engagements by the outside?  How does this history inform engagements with the Global South Today?  This one-day conference will explore these questions with the aim to inform projects that seek to promote Global Justice with particular reference to the Global South.  The conference will be organized around four themes:  Theorizing Global South, Containing Global South, and Learning Global South.

The full day's program is available here. 

Law and Media:  A Complicated Relationship
Derecho y prensa: una relación complicada

 

Public Lecture on Wednesday, April 6, 2011.  3:30 p.m. in Room 109

Pilar Úcar Ventura is a colleague from the Jesuit university Pontificia Comillas in Madrid where she is a professor in the Department of Traducción e Interpretación.  She is visiting Seattle University to talk about her current research analyzing the clarity and transparency with which legal matters are presented/represented (and sometimes lost in translation) by mass media.  Journalists often interpret and analyze the law for citizens, she points out, but seldom is their use of juridical language analyzed.  The language of legal news and public opinion is Professor Úcar's area of investigation, and she will share findings as well as recommendations that result from her project.

Past Events

Maestra (teacher)
U.S. Premier Tour of Cuban Documentary Film
The 1961 Cuban Literacy Campaign:  Transforming Cuban Women and Society

Tuesday, April 5, 2011.  Noon to 1:30 p.m., Sullivan Hall room C5

Cuban gender justice activist Norma Guillard and U.S. documentary filmmaker Catherine Murphy visit Seattle University as part of a national tour sponsored by the U.S. Women and Cuba Collaboration, The Literacy Project, and WILPF.  Guillard and Murphy will talk about the role of women in the 1961 Cuban Literacy Campaign and will screen Murphy's 30-minute documentary film, Maestra, which features Norma Guillard recalling her coming of age in the Literacy Campaign as a young woman of 15 who left home to work in the countryside as a literacy teacher, una maestra.  The history of Cuba in the early years of the Cuban Revolution, as well as celebrating the reality of Cuban women's lives in Cuba today will be included in discussion by the speakers.

 

Rinku Sen:  We're All Accidental Americans:  Reframing the Immigration Discourse

Monday, October 25, 2010, 7:00 p.m., Pigott Auditorium.

Rinku Sen is publisher of Color Lines Magazine, author of numerous works about racial justice and community organization, and president and executive director of the Applied Research Center (ARC).  Her writings cover a wide range of social justice issues, including immigration, community organizing, women's lives, and race, gender and class discrimination.  She will speak about the intersections of immigration and racial justice and share examples of how organizations have made progress regarding immigration discourse and policy.

Strange Gods:  Imperialism and the (Im)possibility of Global Justice

Tuesday, October 19, 2010.  Second Floor Gallery, Sullivan Hall
This is the Inaugural Annual Public Lecture of the Global South and Global Justice Lecture Series.

Professor Peter Fitzpatrick is a leading international authority on legal philosophy, law and social theory, law and racism, and imperialism. He has taught at various universities in Europe, North America, and the South Pacific.  In 2007, he received the James Boyd White Award by The Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities. A prolific author, his writings have been translated into many languages. His books include: Foucault and Law (edited with Ben Golder, 2010), Foucault's Law (with Ben Golder, 2009), Law as Resistance: Modernism, Imperialism, Legalism (2008), Critical Beings: Law, Nation and the Global Subject (edited with Patricia Tuitt, 2004), Laws of the Postcolonial (edited with Eve Darian-Smith,1999), Europe's Other: European Law between Modernity and Postmodernity, (edited with James Bergeron, 1998), Critical Legal Studies (edited with Alan Hunt, 1989), Nationalism, Racism and the Rule of Law (edited 1995), The Mythology of Modern Law (1992), and Dangerous Supplements: Resistance and Renewal in Jurisprudence (edited 1991).

CLE credits available. 

Third National People of Color Conference

September 9-12, 2010 at Seton Hall Law School

This Center co-sponsored conference, Our Country, Our World in a "Post-Racial" Era, will address critical national and global issues through the  lens of legal scholarship that explicitly and implicitly examines contemporary racial context.  It will feature panels on the "war on terror," urban revitatilization, criminal law, health care, education, immigration, human trafficking, voting rights, international and comparative law, judicial nominations, environmental justice, and corporate responsibility.  It will also include a Junior Faculty and Development Workshop.  A media plenary session will explore the meaning of a "post-racial" society and its relevance to legal scholarship and teaching.

2010 SU Law Critical Race Summer Film Series

July 15 and August 10, from 3PM - 4:30PM at the Law School Annex, Room 142.  Refreshments will be provided. 

The films aim to inspire reflections and discussions on the intersectionalities of race, gender, nationality, class, sexuality, and the law. These screenings are only open to the faculty, staff, and students at the law school. 

July 15

Act of War: The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Nation:  This documentary provides a provocative look at a historical event of which few are aware. In mid-January, 1893, armed troops from the U.S.S. Boston landed at Honolulu in support of a coup d'etat against the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen Lili'uokalani. The event was described by U.S. President Grover Cleveland as "an act of war." Stylized re-enactments, archival photos and film, political cartoons, historic quotes, and presentations by Hawaiian scholars tell Hawaiian history through Hawaiian eyes.  In 1993, the U.S. Congress passed a joint resolution admitting the illegal taking of Hawai'i and formally apologizing to the Hawaiian people.

August 10

The purpose of showing "Papers" is to provide a tool for individuals and organizations nationwide to raise awareness about the lives of undocumented youth and educate audiences about what they can do to help make change on behalf of these extraordinary young people.

Individuals or organizations are encouraged to co-host their own local events. It's an opportunity to use the film to bring people together and provide audience with information after the film about how they can participate in and support work on these issues.