Following up on last year’s successful launch of the Dean’s Democracy Series, Santa Clara Law is dedicated to continue to bring us together, providing invaluable information to explore and uphold our core democratic values, including freedom from tyranny, equal justice under the rule of law, judicial independence, voting rights, educational opportunity, reflective discourse, evidence-based inquiry, and respect for a diversity of viewpoints and life experiences.
Santa Clara Law’s initiative seeks to foster deeper and more impactful collaboration between scholars of U.S. and global democracy with the law school.
According to a report released this year by the Varieties of Democracy Project, the level of democracy experienced by the average person in the world today has fallen to the level of 1985, with more than 70% of the global population living under autocracy,
Last academic year’s series included an enthralling presentation that crossed political science to American History and jurisprudence to even data analysis. Titled “Common Ground Democracy” featuring: Edward B. Foley, Director, Election Law at Ohio State & Charles W. Ebersold and Florence Whitcomb Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law, the presentation ensured that all in the room left leaving better informed about our American electoral system.
Equally engaging, was a presentation “An Overdue Reckoning: the Law and Politics of Campus Free Speech After October 7” by Howard Schweber, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where for more than twenty years he taught classes on the U.S. Constitution, comparative constitutionalism, American public law, and democratic and legal theory.
This fall, we will co-host in-person and virtual community discussions with the following renowned authors. We will launch this year’s series with the discussion by Howard Schweber as he begins his position as lecturer at Santa Clara Law:
An Overdue Reckoning: The Law and Politics of Campus Free Speech After October 7 – Howard Schweber, UW-Madison, lecturer at Santa Clara Law for fall 2024 | September 11, 2024, noon-1pm, Charney 104, hosted by the Center for Social Justice Professor David Sloss.
Dismantling Mass Incarceration – Maria Hawilo, Prema Daria, and James Foreman hosted by Santa Clara Law’s Center for Social Justice and Professor David Ball (moderator) | September 19, 2024, Zoom webinar 5-6pm | Book discussion
(https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374614485/dismantlingmassincarceration)
- 6:05-7pm | After-hours private discussion with the authors (email lawmedia@scu.edu for Zoom info)
Kemba film screening – with Kemba Smith, moderated by Prof. Michelle Oberman or Law Student Services Rianna Mendoza.)
- Sep. 26 | Film screening
- Sep. 27 | In-person visit with Kemba Smith, moderated by Prof. Michelle Oberman or Law Student Services Rianna Mendoza.
Stay tuned for more information about additional fall scheduling which will include the following virtual book discussions with renowned authors and strategists:
Class Dismissed: When Colleges Ignore Inequality and Students Pay the Price by Anthony Abraham Jack, Ph.D. Drawing on the firsthand experiences of students from all walks of life at elite colleges, Jack reveals the hidden and unequal worlds students navigated before and during the pandemic closures and upon their return to campus.
FIRST GEN: A Memoir by Alejandra Campoverdi. Campoverdi details and reveals the unacknowledged mental and physical tolls of being a trailblazer. She reveals the immense burden placed on children of immigrants in America, from having to be the family translator to feelings of loneliness, from the anxiety of navigating two cultures to the discrimination of immigrants and people of color.
Future’s Happening: Democracy Edition (https://www.futures-happening.com) – Lisa Kay Solomon and Liz Gerber. This highly experiential and interactive gathering was designed to activate and amplify passionate, and grounded, “civic imagineers”—democracy makers, movers, and multipliers—who are committed to building a strong, robust, inclusive, and participatory “democratic protopia”—a better version of the tomorrow than exists today. Participants explored and expanded their capacity for civic imagination and creative agency. Grounded in bright spots of today, this unique gathering aimed to create and empower bold possibilities for a better tomorrow.
10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People by David Yeager, Ph.D. Yeager teaches us how to motivate young people by harnessing their desire for status and respect, in an illuminating and practical book based on cutting-edge research that will be a must-read for managers, parents, educators, and mentors everywhere.
Holding it Together: How Women Became America’s Social Safety Net by Jessica Calarco, Ph.D. Calarco’s research focuses on education, families, and health decision-making. She is interested in the structures of power and privilege that maintain socioeconomic, racial, and gender inequalities in these settings, as well as the role that qualitative methods can play in uncovering these mechanisms.
The Architecture of Urbanity: Designing for Nature, Culture, and Joy by Vishaan Chakrabarti. Leading architect, Vishaan Chakrabarti, asks how can housing design be a part of the solution to our global problems rather than exacerbate our existing challenges?
The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World by Allison J. Pugh. A timely and urgent argument for preserving the work that connects us in the age of automation
Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness by Jamil Zaki, Ph.D. in his new book, Zaki imparts the secrets to conquering cynicism: hopeful skepticism.
