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Addressing Anti-Black Racism: Research and Scholarship

Research and Creative Activities

In summarizing research and creative activities undertaken by our faculty, we have embraced a broad set of definitional criteria that includes:

• Considers historical and/or contemporary temporal frameworks
• Uses empirical and theoretical lens of analysis as well as methodological approaches
• Explores cultural, economic, political and social practices, formations and experiences
• Encompasses many intersectional dimensions of diversity - class, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender expression, geography and spatial experiences, immigration and immigration status, sexual orientation among others
• Interrogates health access and outcomes in relation to wellness and well-being
• Relates ecological and planetary patterns of change - such as sustainability - in relation to race

This section summarizes the different activities our faculty pursue. It has been organized around (a) scholarship; and (b) clinical activities. It is worth noting that because of the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of the law school, and the campus more generally, faculty often make contributions across these categories.

Scholarship

Our faculty includes several members whose research agenda exclusively or primarily focus on aspects of the law central to the black experience:

• Mehrsa Baradaran
  Professor Baradaran joined the faculty in July 2019.  She is a nationally recognized scholar who writes about banking law, financial inclusion, inequality, and the racial wealth gap.  She is the author of two books— How the Other Half Banks and The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap—and several articles all addressing racial inequality in the life of Black Americans.  Professor Baradaran has found many ways to spread her ideas beyond purely academic circles and into mainstream discourse.  She regularly writes for mainstream outlets like the New York Times, advises presidential campaigns, and testifies before Congress.  Most impressively, her book, The Color of Money, inspired Netflix to move $100 million to banks and other financial institutions that serve Black Communities.  More on that story can be found here.
• Kaaryn Gustafson
  Professor Gustafson joined the faculty in 2014.  She is a professor, director of the Center on Law, Equality and Race (CLEAR), and Associate Dean Academic Community Engagement.  Professor Gustafson is a nationally-recognized scholar on race, poverty, and the law.  Her book, Cheating Welfare: Public Assistance and the Criminalization of Poverty won the 2012 Herbert Jacob Book Prize through the Law and Society Association.  In addition to her academic work, Professor Gustafson has enriched the race-focused aspects of the law school’s intellectual life through CLEAR and its array of programs and events.  Faculty, staff, students, and alumni regularly gather at monthly “Perspectives” book discussions that focus on different books exploring race.  These workshops have become a key community-building event.  This is in addition to the many events and conferences that CLEAR organizes, sponsors, and co-sponsors under Professor Gustafson’s leadership.

In addition to these four faculty members, 17 faculty members have produced research or engaged in other activities that have centered the Black experience. 

Comprehensive Faculty Contributions >

Clinical Activities

The law school requires students to have at least one semester of clinical education. The law school has ten core clinics and several additional elective clinics. (More information can be found here.) All of the clinics provide assistance to clients who cannot afford it. Many of the clinics engage in work that addresses inequalities experienced by Black clients specifically or Black communities more generally. These types of activities include—

• The Immigrant Rights’ Clinic assisted a Black permanent resident in deportation proceedings.
• The Ninth Circuit Appellate Litigation Clinic represented a Black prisoner in a civil rights suit against the Department of Corrections.
• The Civil Rights Litigation Clinic is representing clients in a class action suit against the Los Angeles Police Department on behalf of Black Lives Matter.
• The Criminal Justice Clinic has a “clean slate practice” that focuses on representing formerly incarcerated individuals, many of whom are Black men and women, in clearing their criminal records in order to overcome employment and educational barriers caused by their criminal records.
• The IPAT Clinic has put together a practice-guide for defense attorneys who are fighting rap on trial, the problematic use of rap lyrics in criminal trials.

These are just a few highlights.

Comprehensive Clinical Activities >

Future Research and Creative Activities

The law school recently hired two faculty who are poised to meaningfully contribute to on-going efforts related to the Black experience. The first is Professor Cindy Archer who joins the law school from Loyola Law School as a Lawyering Skills Professor. At Loyola, Professor Archer served as the Associate Dean of Clinical Programs and Experiential Learning. Professor Archer has frequently given presentations related to equity and anti-Black racism. Most recently, Professor Archer gave a presentation on “Microaggressions in the Law School Environment” at a national conference in October 2019. Professor Archer has also been active with the bar. She is the past chair to the education committee for the Black Women Lawyers of Los Angeles and is on the Board for the Stanford Black Alumni Association.

The second is Professor Sameer Ashar . He founded the Immigrant Rights Clinic at UCI in 2011 before leaving to join the UCLA law faculty in 2018 as the Vice Dean for Experiential Education. He returns to us to develop a new clinic focused on organizing and worker rights. Professor Ashar has also made several important scholarly contributions to the literature on social movements as well as to clinical law teaching.  While his work has not centered the Black experience, most if not all of his work has grappled with the harms of racism especially in the Latinx and Asian American context.