Announcements

2021 Symposium: Are You There, Law? It's Me, Menstruation

February 11, 2022

To commemorate both the 30th anniversary of the Columbia Journal of Gender & Law and the 50th anniversary of Judy Blume's Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, the Journal hosted the first-ever symposium to explore the intersection of menstruation and the law. Panelists from a variety of academic and advocacy backgrounds discussed themes ranging from cultural constructions of menstruation to courts and constitutionality, employment and capitalism to dignity for marginalized communities, and public policy and perspectives on change. U.S. Congresswoman Grace Meng delivered the keynote address. More than forty authors contributed to the Journal's symposium volume.

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Symposium 2018: Climate Change and Gender Justice

August 7, 2019

At this symposium, hosted by the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law at Columbia Law School, researchers and scholars presented scholarship examining the intersection of climate change and gender-based disparities. The selected scholarship considered the impact of climate change on child marriage, public health, economic mobility, and domestic abuse. By shining a light on the ways in which climate climate change exacerbates inequality, this symposium supported a proactive, inclusive approach to climate change and gender justice.

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2017 Symposium: Double-Consciousness: Women of Color as Advocates for Ourselves and Others

August 7, 2019

Empowering Women of Color (EWOC) hosted their third annual conference with the African American Policy Forum (AAPF), the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies (CISPS), and the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. The conference sought to create a space for strategizing around the challenge of “double-consciousness” through several panel discussions. The panels brought together academics, legal practitioners and community organizers from around the country to address this question of balance: how do we balance our reality as individual citizens who are subject to the law with our role as advocates armed with the power of the law? Moreover, how do we balance our individual professional pursuits with the collective advancement of our respective groups in society?

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2016 Symposium: Female Perspectives in Commercial and Consumer Law

August 7, 2019

This Symposium, hosted by the Section on Commercial and Related Consumer Law, and the Section on Women in Legal Education of the AALS, reflected on the pivotal contributions made by female scholars to the development of commercial and consumer laws and scholarship in the United States, especially in the past few decades. These papers discuss the contributions of specific female academics, how feminist concerns have influenced commercial and consumer law scholarship, and scholarship focused on women’s experiences with consumer and commercial law.

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25th Anniversary Issue

August 7, 2019

In honor of the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law’s twenty-fifth anniversary, Journal staff, alumnae, and board members assembled a special Anniversary Issue to chronicle the Journal’s evolving zeitgeist. This issue includes reflections on the Journal’s founding, aspirations for the future of gender and legal scholarship and advocacy, and contemplation of the future impacts of emerging medical technologies on gender, reproduction, and autonomy. We also include three essays from a panel entitled “Banishing Women: The Law and Politics of Abortion Travel,” cosponsored by Columbia Law School and the Center for Reproductive Rights.

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2015 Symposium: Persisting Discrimination in the Legal Academy

August 7, 2019

This Symposium, hosted by the AALS, grew out of the ideas of a group of faculty members from all over the country, inspired by a suggestion from Professor Meera Deo of Thomas Jefferson School of Law. These faculty banded together to propose a “crosscutting program” at the 2015 meeting of the AALS that would draw from empirical data, legal research, litigation strategy, and personal experience to both further conversations about the persistence of discrimination in the legal academy and activate strategies for addressing continuing problems. The articles published in this Symposium issue arose from the presentations made at the event, which took place in January 2015.

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2014 Symposium: Marriage Equality and Reproductive Rights: Lessons Learned and the Road Ahead

August 7, 2019

Hosted by the Columbia Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, this half-day public conference will highlight lessons learned through the successful, multifaceted challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act and explore how those lessons might apply in ongoing gender and sexuality law work on marriage equality and reproductive rights.  Among the speakers will be Bridgette Amiri, Mary Bonauto, James Esseks, Nancy Northup, Jessica González-Rojas, Sharon McGowan, Hilary Rosen, Heather Sawyer, Rachel Sussman, Evan Wolfson and Edie Windsor.

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2013 Symposium Honoring Patricia Williams

August 7, 2019

Hosted by the Columbia Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, Columbia Law School celebrated the work of Professor Patricia Williams. The symposium included three panels that covered a wide range of topics from race, gender and the law, to ethics and the body, and Williams delivered a keynote address at the end of the day. Panelists included: Anita Hill, Professor of Social Policy, Law, and Women’s Studies at Brandeis University; Lani Guinier, Bennett Boskey Professor of Law at Harvard Law School; and Anna Deavere Smith, Professor of Performance Studies at New York University.

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2012 Symposium Honoring Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

August 5, 2019

Hosted by the Columbia Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, Columbia Law School honored the 40th anniversary of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg joining the Columbia law faculty as the first female tenure-track professor. This gathering marked not only this important milestone, but also the foundational contributions Justice Ginsburg has made, as jurist, as advocate, and as scholar, to the law of gender-based justice and equality.

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