Starting Points: Watch


Videos to help understand the issues

Cincinnati’s “2020 Teach-in on Racial Justice and the Law” Video Series

Summary from the University of Cincinnati College of Law: “In solidarity with the  Scholar Strike for Racial Justice and Teach-in on September 8 and 9, 2020, seven law schools organized and participated in the Law School Anti-Racist Coalition’s Teach-In. This virtual public teach-in covered such diverse topics as water rights in Indian Country, implementing anti-racist practices in legal education, and implicit bias in bankruptcy law. A number of the sessions were recorded and are available below as well as on our YouTube page.

Organizers include:

  • Boston University School of Law
  • Howard University School of Law
  • Penn State Dickinson Law
  • Rutgers Law School
  • University of California, Irvine School of Law
  • University of Cincinnati College of Law
  • Washburn University School of Law

Sessions include:


Duke’s “Race and the 1L Curriculum” Video Series

Summary from Duke Law News:“Race and the 1L Curriculum” highlights scholarship and activism that addresses racial disparities in the way these bodies of law are taught, formulated, and operate. A yearlong series at Duke Law sponsored by the dean’s office is examining race in the context of the six foundational subjects in the first-year curriculum: torts, criminal law, civil procedure, contracts, property law, and constitutional law. Each discussion in the “Race and the 1L Curriculum” webinar series is moderated by a faculty scholar who teaches a first-year course in the area of law under consideration. The events feature scholars and others engaged in research and legal actions that address racial disparities in the way these bodies of law are taught or formulated, or how they play out in practice.”

Sessions include:


Harvard’s “Diversity and Social Justice in First Year Classes” Video Series

Summary by Professor Mark Tushnet in Harvard Law Today: “The seminar is in conjunction with the lecture series. In the seminar, we’ll be doing two things. One is talking about what the lecturers have said, reflecting on the lectures, asking whether what they have to say captured and accurately described the experience the students had in their first-year classes. In addition, the writing part of the seminar involves seminar members developing a set of materials on issues of diversity and social justice in some first-year class. The idea is to develop the equivalent of one-day’s-worth of teaching materials on some topic – such as contracts or torts or another class – and develop the materials in a way that would present cases in a way that exposed or invited reflection on issue of diversity and social justice.”

Sessions include: