Welcome to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Center for Justice, Law, and Societies
The Center for Justice, Law, and Societies (CJLS) strives to foster research, teaching, and public engagement related to bias, inequity, and inequality in the law. We provide a vehicle to support interdisciplinary research that is policy-relevant and also theoretically generative. We bring together faculty and graduate students across the university working on Law and Society topics that are vital to domestic governance, such as access to justice for vulnerable populations, how court decision making shapes public policy, and the relationship between law and new technologies. In addition to our expertise in domestic law and society, we also pressing global challenges, supporting research related to international law, globalization, migration, and cross-border conflict resolution.
Upcoming Events
Conference on New Directions in Law and Society
CJLS, with support from the Law and Science Program of the National Science Foundation and the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, will host the 2022 Conference on New Directions in Law and Society on October 7-8, 2022, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the beautiful Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts. We have designed this conference to bring together faculty and graduate students from the diverse community of law and society scholars. We hope to provide a collaborative setting in which to deepen law and society as a field, introduce scholars to the field, and foster ongoing dialogue for future events.
The link for registration can be found here.
The link for registration can be found here.
The Time Is (Never) Right for Reparations
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Tasseli McKay
Bernie Dallas Room, UMass Amherst - September 30, 2022 2:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. America’s long history of unreconstructed racial atrocity demands a peculiar relationship to time. For more than three centuries, debates over reparations to Black Americans have raged in courts and legislatures and across the social sciences, humanities, and the law. Nowhere are the oddities of American time on richer display than in the temporal vitiation of reparations proposals, framed as either far ahead of their time or far too late to be relevant.
The time for reparations, it seems, will never be right. But what if the time is now? |
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The UMass Amherst Feinberg Family
Distinguished Lecture Series: Confronting Empire
TO REGISTER, CLICK HERE
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Fall 2022
Keynote: U.S. Policy in the Global South Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Vincent Bevins, and Amy Goodman (moderator) September 19, 7pm, Zoom The Imperialist Roots of the U.S.A. Manu Karuka October 3, 6pm, UMass Amherst Student Union Ballroom and Zoom U.S. Empire in Asia and the Pacific: Repression and Resistance Nerissa S. Balce, Brian Hioe, Moon-Ho Jung, and Sigrid Schmalzer (moderator) November 1, 7pm, Zoom The Human Toll of America’s Air Wars Inaugural Ellsberg Lecture by Azmat Khan November 15, 7pm, UMass Amherst Student Union Ballroom and Zoom Vietnam Era Antiwar Movement: Successes, Failures, and Legacies W.D. Ehrhart, Carolyn Eisenberg, Daniel Ellsberg, Ngo Vinh Long, and Judith Ehrlich (moderator) December 1, 7pm, Zoom Teaching Empire Brian Brown and Alison Russell Ongoing, UMass Amherst Herter Hall |
Spring 2023
None of Us Is Free Unless All Are Free: Anti-Imperialism and the Black Radical Tradition 2023 James Baldwin Lecture by Bill Fletcher Jr. February 23, 6pm, UMass Amherst Bowker Auditorium and Zoom Feminists Against Empire: Resistance to U.S. Sanctions and Embargoes Liz Oliva Fernández, Alejandra Laprea, and Diana Sierra Becerra (moderator) March 7, 7pm, Zoom Resisting Imperial Memory: Confronting the History of U.S. Aggression in Iraq Dave Inder Comar, Kali Rubaii, Nazli Tarzi, and Ross Caputi (moderator) March 23, 4pm, Zoom The Poetry of War and Resistance Carolyn Forché, Yusef Komunyakaa, Dunya Mikhail, Ocean Vuong, and Ru Freeman (moderator) April 3, 7pm, Zoom |
Announcements
graduate Fellowship Recipients
The Center for Justice, Law, and Societies is pleased to announce its second class of Graduate Fellows. Fellows will participate in a year-long program to develop an interdisciplinary academic project related to justice, law and societies, and will receive conference funding, mentorship, and attend professionalization workshops. Congratulations!
For more information, click here
For more information, click here
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Undergraduate Fellowship Recipients
This summer marks the launch of a summer research assistantship developed by the Center for Justice, Law, and Societies (CJLS) and the Academic Fellows Program. This new initiative allows faculty members to mentor students from the AFP community on research projects, an important, high-impact practice that provides students with valuable skills for graduate school or employment. Through a competitive process, faculty members were selected to serve as mentors, and students were paired with a mentor who will help them complete a research project over the summer. Students will receive mentoring sessions with their faculty mentor, as well as research skills training through the Institute for Social Science Research and a $5,000 stipend, courtesy of a generous donation from two SBS alumni.
Participants in the inaugural cohort are:
• Nicole Ojugbana & Laurel Smith-Doerr: Faculty Equity in Access to Centers and Institutes at UMass
• Xavier Aparicio & Cedric de Leon: A Constant Sorrow: The Black Freedom Struggle and Organized Labor in the United States
* Konah Brownell & Kelsey Whipple: Fight for Your Writes: Examining Journalistic Unions and Their Protection of Intellectual Labor
Participants in the inaugural cohort are:
• Nicole Ojugbana & Laurel Smith-Doerr: Faculty Equity in Access to Centers and Institutes at UMass
• Xavier Aparicio & Cedric de Leon: A Constant Sorrow: The Black Freedom Struggle and Organized Labor in the United States
* Konah Brownell & Kelsey Whipple: Fight for Your Writes: Examining Journalistic Unions and Their Protection of Intellectual Labor
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UMass Event Co-Sponsorship Request:
Please fill out this form. Requests will be checked on the first of the month.
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Want to Support
UMass Center for Justice, Law, and Societies?
UMass Center for Justice, Law, and Societies?
If you are interested in supporting the Center and its mission, follow the link above and list the Center for Justice, Law, and Societies under "gift designation" and "special instructions". Your support can go to research opportunities for students, public events, or other designated activities. Thank you!
