Washington University School of Law to host conference on whiteness Oct. 29

Washington University School of Law will host the interdisciplinary conference, “Whiteness: Some Critical Perspectives,” 9 a.m.- 6 p.m. Oct. 29 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall.

“This important conference, which brings together leading scholars in the fields of critical race theory and whiteness studies, will explore the ways whiteness and white privilege create, entrench, and reproduce themselves,” says Barbara Flagg, professor of law and conference organizer.

Conference panelists and their topics are:

• John Calmore, the Reef C. Ivey II Research Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina, “My ‘Passing’ Experience with Integration”;

• Helen Moore, Ph.D., professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, “Testing Whiteness and Schooling Evaluations”;

• Thomas Ross, professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh, “Harlan’s Homeland: Whiteness After 9/11”;

• Judy Scales-Trent, professor of law at The State University of New York at Buffalo, “Make-Believe Families and Whiteness”;

• Stephanie Wildman, professor of law and director of the Center for Social Justice and Public Service at Santa Clara University, The Persistence of White Privilege”;

• Sumi Cho, professor of law at DePaul University, “Embedded Whiteness and Affirmative Action”;

• Gerald Torres, the H.O. Head Centennial Professor in Real Property Law at the University of Texas, “Understanding Whiteness as an Expression of Patriarchy: Insights from the Chicana Movement”;

• John Powell, the Gregory H. Williams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties and director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity at Ohio State University, “For Whites Only: Whiteness as Opportunity”;

• David Roediger, Ph.D., the Kendrick C. Babcock Professor of History, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, “The Historically White College and University Represents Itself: Privilege and the Racial Packaging of Higher Education”; and

• Rebecca Tsosie, the Lincoln Professor of Native American Law & Ethics and executive director of the Indian Legal Program at Arizona State University, “Native Status and Whiteness.”

The conference is free and open to the public. For registration information, call Jo Hobbs at 935-6474. A conference agenda is available online at http://law.wustl.edu/Whatsnew/Fall2004/Conferences/whiteness_Oct_29.html.