The Center sponsors two annual lectures honoring distinguished alumni committed to social justice. The fall symposium is host to the Mario G. Olmos Law and Cultural Diversity Memorial Lecture, and the Robert D. and Leslie-Kay Raven Lecture on Access to Justice occurs in the spring. The center also sponsors a number of special lectures of interest to the Boalt community during the school year. These events are intended to educate the law school community on social justice issues and provide an opportunity to gain knowledge from leading public interest lawyers, judges and academics who are fighting for equality and have distinguished themselves in the social justice arena.
2008 Fall Symposium
“Transformative Justice in Communities of Color: A Convening”
September 11-12, 2008
Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice
Goldberg Room, 297 Simon Hall
Agenda Panelist Profiles Lodging Parking-Directions
This international convening brought together two strands of recent conversation among anti-colonial and anti-racist scholars and activists. First, reparations discussions tend to get stalled on the question of returning money and land. How can we begin to shift the conversation toward reparations for cultural imperialism, violence (including police violence and gender violence), and ill health among communities of color?
Second, a conversation is emerging among anti-colonial and anti-racist activists and scholars around the question of transforming our communities. The need is great to move beyond relying on the state for peace and justice; yet law and the state may be necessary partners. Is “restorative justice” a useful paradigm? Is the word “healing” appropriate? What some people are calling “transformative justice” attempts to move law to the sidelines, yet at the same time be realistic about the obstacles that the prison industrial complex presents to transformative efforts.
The convening consisted of two sets of events: The annual Olmos Lecture at UC Berkeley School of Law on Thursday, September 11 (speaker: Professor Eric Yamamoto, University of Hawaii School of Law); and a day-long public session, Friday, September 12, on transformative justice in communities of color.
Speakers listed under “Panelist Profiles.”