This workshop will contribute to strengthening the skills of teachers in creating welcoming and constructive spaces for discussions regarding race and anti-racist lawyering that ensure an explicit anti-racist analysis permeates the skills we want students to develop to best serve their clients.
Law students across the country note that while racism is embedded in the law, it is rarely explicitly analyzed in most classrooms from either a professional or personal perspective. They also note that when racism is discussed, it is often discussed in a detached manner and from a theoretical perspective that often further marginalizes individuals and is experienced as micro-aggressive. While supporting an analytical approach, CUNY also promotes the use of personal narratives and mindful dialogue from all classroom participants, including the professor. To maximize the discussion, this includes teaching how to prevent and interrupt micro-aggressions/assaults, naming and creating awareness of common types, understanding the depth of their harm, and identifying tools to prevent/interrupt them as a target, ally, or bystander.
This workshop will share a framework (developed with peers and students) for designing such classes, including lesson plans that cultivate honest engagement by incorporating the use of both structural and personal narratives as tools to deepen classroom discussions while minimizing harm to marginalized students.
This workshop will use grounding techniques, music, hypotheticals, and breakout rooms to respectively explore the implementation of our framework.