Plenary Session - Part I - Service: Challenge, Opportunity and Passion; Part II - Teaching and Outsider Status

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Session Type: AALS Programs

Session Capacity: 130

Hotel: Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel

Room: Gramercy

Floor: Lower Level

This final session will challenge participants to develop service to their school, university, profession, and community as outlets for their academic and non-academic passions and interests.

How do you approach the third prong of the tripartite journey toward tenure? There is service and service. Your service obligations may appear to be a chore, a burden (and, sometimes, they really are!). But you have the power to transform that perception and reality. Service is a gateway to learning about, and being active and influential in, the operation of your school. Your service provides an opportunity to interact with your colleagues—and for them to interact with you—to build strong personal and professional relationships. (On both sides, there is ongoing interactive assessment of participants’ character, capability, and potential.) This session will illustrate the ways in which the power resides with you to transform your service obligations, create your own service opportunities, and follow your passion in order to develop and extend your areas of expertise and your networks at the same time.

Law professors of color often report special challenges in the classroom stemming from dynamics that are hard to spot and to know how to address. This session will identify specific issues that may be of concern. How do I deal with difficult students? How do I ensure diverse participation in the classroom? How should I address the various differences among students—particularly racial or gender differences—and differences between students and myself? Dean Johnson will offer some advice on how to plan and to facilitate classroom teaching in both large and small courses, and to be a more effective teacher. His remarks will be followed by a lengthy period for questions and interactive discussion.