Race, Law, and American Literary Studies

This Thursday and Friday the University of Maryland's English Department is hosting what promises to be a terrific conference, "Race, Law, and American Literary Studies: An Interdisciplinary Conference." Stephen M. Best of the University of California, Berkeley will deliver the first keynote address, on "The Legacy of 'The Legacy of Slavery.'"  Eric Foner of Columbia University will deliver the second one, "Born in the USA: The Politics of Birthright Citizenship in Historical Perspective."  The rest of the program is here and a brochure describing it is here.  I'm most excited about this -- and, of course, I hope to bring home lots of pictures!

Comments

[Bob Strassfeld]

Al,

This sounds like a great conference. Wish I could be there. If anyone speaks about depictions of African American lawyers in fiction, I would love to hear about it.

[Kelly Anders]

Yes, this sounds fascinating. Is the image you selected to accompany your post by Romare Bearden, or possibly Jacob Lawrence?

Bob, in response to your query about African-American lawyers in fiction, I recently read the David Mamet play, "Race," which features an African-American lawyer with interesting views about...race. It is an uncomfortable read, but an important part of the debate that is seldom addressed. Certainly, there are other depictions, but this one immediately comes to mind because I just finished reading the play. The character was portrayed by David Alan Grier on Broadway in its initial run.

[Alfred Brophy]

The image is Jacob Lawrence, Lawyer and Clients. I got the idea for this from the conference brochure, which uses it and also Lawrence's The Library, as I recall.

[Kelly Anders]

How fitting (and thoughtful). Bearden and Lawrence are among my favorite artists.