A leading authority on economic discrimination and minority legal feminism, Regina Austin, will speak at York’s Osgoode Hall Law School as the Barbara Betcherman Distinguished Visitor next week.
Austin is the William A. Schnader Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania. Her talk, “Visual Legal Advocacy and Social Justice for Women”, will take place Tuesday, Jan. 31, from 2:30 to 4pm, at Osgoode Hall Law School (IKB), Keele campus.
Austin’s work on the overlapping burdens of race, gender and class oppression, recognized for its insight and creativity, has been widely reprinted. She is also director of the University of Pennsylvania’s program on documentaries and the law.
Right: Regina Austin
“Austin is a major US critical race theory scholar and her talk will have broad appeal across the social sciences, humanities and fine arts,” says Lisa Philipps, associate vice-president research, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation. “Her work is about social justice and using film and storytelling to make change.”
In addition to making extensive use of documentaries in her traditional courses, Austin teaches a visual legal advocacy seminar in which the students make short videos on behalf of actual public interest clients and causes.
The Barbara Betcherman Distinguished Visitorship was established in 1985 by friends and family in honour of Barbara, a distinguished graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School, to recognize her contributions to women and to feminism in law. The talk is sponsored by the Institute for Feminist Legal Studies.
RSVP at 416-736-5571 or InstituteFLS@osgoode.yorku.ca.