The LatCrit Student Scholar Program 2006

Each year LatCrit, Inc., in partnership with the University of California Berkeley School of Law, sponsors the LatCrit Student Scholar Program (SSP). This student paper competition is open to students in any discipline who are committed to social justice scholarship and praxis, and is especially welcoming of students who intend to pursue an academic career embracing the antisubordination, antiessentialist goals of LatCrit/critical race theory scholarship. Each year the SSP selection committee identifies three to five Student Scholars out of an international pool of submissions. Papers must be submitted in English.

This year, the SSP will bring the Student Scholars into the LatCrit intellectual and social community in four mutually reinforcing ways:

1. Each Student Scholar will receive a scholarship covering registration, lodging, and group meals, to attend the Eleventh Annual LatCrit conference, to be held October 5 9, 2006, in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the University of Nevada - Las Vegas School of Law. LatCrit conferences are open, mid sized gatherings of about 75 135 attendees, and provide students with a rare opportunity to inspire and be inspired by faculty in law and other fields from all over the world who are doing cutting edge work in race and ethnicity.
2. Each Student Scholar's paper will be submitted for publication in a symposium issue devoted to the Eleventh Annual LatCrit conference.
3. ch Student Scholar will be matched with one or more academic mentor(s) whose work lies in an area of the Scholar's interest, and who will work with the Scholar directly over the course of at least one academic year to help the Scholar advance his/her scholarly and activist agenda.
4. Each Student Scholar will receive a travel stipend of up to $750 USD to help subsidize travel expenses to and from the Eleventh Annual LatCrit Conference. Any additional expenses remain the responsibility of each Student Scholar.

Eligibility Requirements for the Student Scholar Program

Applicants for the 2006 LatCrit Student Scholar Program must be students in good standing during the 2005 06 academic year in an accredited undergraduate, graduate, or professional degree program (including but not limited to J.D., LL.M., J.S.D., Ph.D., and B.A./B.S. programs), whether in the United States, the Americas, or anywhere else in the world. Successful applicants must submit: (1) a fully completed application form; (2) a current resume; (3) a personal statement (no longer than one single spaced page) explaining how the Student Scholar Program will further the student's intellectual and professional agenda; and (4) a previously unpublished paper, authored by the applicant, no more than 25,000 words, on any topic related to race, ethnicity, and the law. All application materials, including the paper, must be typed and submitted in English. Electronically submitted materials must be formatted in Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect. Text, including footnotes, should be double spaced with 1 inch margins on all sides of each page. Although papers may address any aspect of race, ethnicity, and the law, the following themes are of particular interest:

• Papers that focus on Latinas/os as a distinct but diverse and transnational social group, and on the group's relationship to law or current legal regimes/practices. The idea is to Acenter@ Latinas/os as Latinas/os in legal discourse, but to do so in ways that recognize and account for the many axes of difference that help to define Latina/o heterogeneity, both domestically and internationally.
• Papers that speak to the overall theme of the Annual Conference. This year, the conference theme is Afront stage and backstage@: an exploration of the relationship between the production and consumption sides of world tourist culture.
• Papers that bring a regional focus to the Annual Conference, corresponding to the conference locale. This year, regional papers would focus on Latino/a issues in Las Vegas and the West more generally.
• Papers that explore or elucidate cross group histories or experiences with law and power, such as those based on class, gender, race, sexuality and religion.
• Papers that connect LatCrit theory with, or contrast LatCrit theory to, other genres of scholarship, especially theoretical approaches that critique class, gender, race, sexuality and other categories of social legal identities and relations.

Submission Deadline

The submission deadline is MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 2006. We look forward to receiving your application!

Download application here