A scholar whose expertise includes issues of race, employment discrimination, police violence and constitutional law will open the second year of the UO African American Workshop and Lecture Series.
Devon Carbado will discuss “The Fourth Amendment and Police Violence” at noon Wednesday, Nov. 1, in Room 110, Knight Law Center. Carbado is the associate vice chancellor of BruinX, a multidisciplinary unit in the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he also is an Honorable Harry Pregerson Professor of Law.
As part of his UO visit, Carbado also will hold a conversation with UO academic leaders on the promises and challenges of diversity in institutional governance, meet with student groups and engage with faculty and staff on issues of research innovation in diversity.
Carbado is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Black Letter Law Journal and winner of the Northeast Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition. He joined the UCLA School of Law faculty in 1997 and also served as vice dean for faculty and research.
He teaches constitutional criminal procedure, constitutional law, critical race theory and criminal adjudication. He writes in the areas of employment discrimination, criminal procedure, and constitutional law and identity, and he co-authored, with Mitu Gulati, “Acting White? Rethinking Race in ‘Post-Racial’ America.” He is currently working on a series of articles on race, law and police violence.
The African American Speaker and Workshop Series came about as a result of the 2016 demands of the Black Student Task Force. It is sponsored by the Office of the President and coordinated by the Division of Equity and Inclusion and brings to campus scholars and practitioners who are experts in a range of equity and inclusion issues.
President Michael Schill said he is glad to see the program continuing.
“This series provides an opportunity for us to have important discussions about equity and inclusion, and to address tough issues like racism,” Schill said. “This kind of exchange of ideas is a critical function of the university. I anticipate these discussions will help advance our work on equity and help improve the quality of education at the UO.”
The series focuses on helping the university community understand and utilize best practices in equity and inclusion. Each speaker will engage with an array of university stakeholders and offer a variety of events, including public lectures, workshops, panels and meetings with small groups of advisors, deans, student leaders, faculty, staff, vice presidents and supervisors.
Yvette Alex-Assensoh, vice president for the Division of Equity and Inclusion, said she is grateful for this new group of national leaders who are coming to campus.
“We appreciate the Black Student Task Force for prompting this series and the continued support from the president’s office,” she said. “This year we again have dynamic figures addressing multiple campus groups. The range of speakers will help us move forward with recruitment and retention of faculty and students, as well as with a variety of other essential issues to meet the president’s priorities of excellence, access and a successful student experience, and will help us actualize the UO’s IDEAL framework for inclusion, diversity, evaluation, achievement and leadership.”
Also on the fall schedule is Adam Foss on Nov. 28. His campuswide lecture is titled “Shields and Swords: Waging A Battle Against Bias in Our Public Systems.” Foss established the nonprofit Prosecutor Impact and is a former assistant district attorney in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office in Boston and a 2017 Mandela Foundation Changemaker of the Year recipient.
Further details about this event and future offerings in this year’s series will be announced soon. Information can be found on the Division of Equity and Inclusion website.
—By tova stabin, University Communications