Social Justice Program Events
The Social Justice Program frequently sponsors lectures, workshops and conferences. Selected past events are described below.
“Lessons Learned” Workshop - co-sponsored with the Center for the Study of Social Policy, the National Center for Youth Law, and the Vanderbilt Child and Family Policy Center on March 10-11, 2009. The main purpose of this workshop was to plan a national symposium on lessons to be learned from thirty years of class action litigation aimed at improving child welfare systems.
Geier v. Tennessee - Panel discussion about this landmark case, which resulted in the desegregation of public higher education institutions in Tennessee and involved a number of Vanderbilt Law alumni, held on February 7, 2009. The event brought back together many of the key participants in the case, including U.S .District Judge Thomas A. Wiseman, Jr. '54, who approved the consent decree; Tennessee Court of Appeals Judge Richard H. Dinkins '77 and George Barratt '57, who served as plaintiffs’ counsel; Deputy Attorney General Kate Eyler '79, who was counsel for the State of Tennessee; mediator Carlos Gonzalez '89; Justin Wilson '70, who was counsel for Tennessee Governor Don Sundquist, and Rita Geier '70, who was the named plaintiff.
"Bonded Labor for a New Millennium: Guestworkers and Indentured Servitude in Post-Katrina American Politics," a lecture by Jennifer J. Rosenbaum, counsel for the New Orleans Workers’ Center For Racial Justice, October 20, 2008.
"Equity Offsets: Justice and the Environment," a workshop co-sponsored with the Regulatory Program and Vanderbilt University's Climate Change Research Network on March 19, 2008. The purpose of the workshop was to explore how equity offsets can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by subsidizing the purchase of fuel-efficient goods and services by individuals with limited financial resources.
"Debating Immigration," a symposium co-sponsored by the Constitutional Law and Law and Human Behavior programs and the Vanderbilt Political Science Department's Public Law Program on March 20-21, 2008. The symposium followed the publication of a book of the same title edited by Program faculty member Carol Swain for Cambridge University Press.
