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Spring 2020 Class Descriptions

Discrimination Law & Diversity (LWPP520)

Instructor(s): Roy L. Brooks

3 credit(s), Letter Graded
Concentration(s): Employment and Labor Law (JD), Public Interest Law (JD), Employment and Labor Law (LLMG)

This course is designed not only for the student who plans to practice civil rights or public interest law, but also for the student who plans to hold a position of leadership in a culturally diverse institution; e.g., corporations, schools, and governments. We will study modern civil rights perspectives that shape our understanding of discrimination law and diversity. Race is the primary galaxy in the civil rights cosmos. From there, other galaxies have formed—including gender, sexual orientation and identity, disability, and age. We will give attention to conservative, liberal, and critical perspectives that shape our civil rights laws and our understanding of diversity. Seminal civil rights cases (e.g., Brown v. Board of Education) and traditional topics in the field (e.g., school desegregation, housing discrimination, employment discrimination, affirmative action, and the Equal Protection Clause) will be studied. In addition, we will see how terms like “racism,” "sexism,” and “homophobia” are no longer seen as the only structural sources of inequality in culturally diverse institutions. Decidedly interdisciplinary, this course will give the student an opportunity to engage in innovative, out-side-of-the-box thinking regarding legal, cultural, and socioeconomic approaches to civil rights law and diversity. This class will be graded on the basis of class participation and a final exam.