MOMENTUM
Seventh Annual Critical Race Studies Symposium Celebrates the Work of Professor Cheryl Harris
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n October 2014, nearly 400 scholars, advocates and activists from around the globe came together for the Seventh Annual Critical Race Studies Symposium, “Whiteness as Property: A Twenty-Year Appraisal.” The two-day event celebrated one of the seminal texts of Critical Race Theory, “Whiteness as Property,” which was written by UCLA Law Professor Cheryl Harris, Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert professor in civil rights and civil liberties, and published in 1993 in the Harvard Law Review. “I, like so many students and scholars of Critical Race Theory, credit ‘Whiteness as Property’ with being one of my first introductions to the field, and it’s really a testament to the scope of the piece that its impact remains as fresh today— more than 20 years later—and that its influence can be seen across so many different disciplines,” Jasleen Kohli, director of the Critical Race Studies Program, said. The participants included some of the biggest names in Critical Race Theory, including UCLA Law Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw and Professors Charles R. Lawrence and Mari J. Matsuda of the University of Hawai’i at Mãnoa William S. Richardson School of Law. They reflected on the political, legal and intellectual context out of which “Whiteness as Property” emerged, explored the article’s impact across academic disciplines, and considered how its theoretical arguments have shaped contemporary civil rights debates, pedagogy, legal practice and social movement organizing. “Over the past 21 years, the article has had a tremendous impact inside and outside of legal academia—and within and beyond the borders of the United States. Our goal was to organize a conference to map and critically examine this impact,” Professor Devon Carbado, the Honorable Harry Pregerson professor of law, said. “Happily, the conference did precisely that.” Professor Harris delivered the event’s keynote address, discussing the personal and political genealogy of the article, the changing perceptions of race and property and how forms of whiteness as property are operating under post-racialism. The event ended with a performance by comedian Hari Kondabolu, and the presentation of a student film featuring interviews with alumni and current students on the impact of the Critical Race Studies Program and Professor Harris. “The symposium was inspiring, enlightening and energizing,” Kohli said. “It was joyful and celebratory but also sought to critically grapple with the difficult issues in racial justice today.” This fall, the Harvard Journal on Racial and Ethnic Justice will be publishing several of the papers that were presented at the conference.
Professor Cheryl Harris delivers the keynote address.
Professor Harris speaks with panelist Robin D.G. Kelley, distinguished professor of history and Gary B. Nash endowed chair in United States history at UCLA’s Department of History.
Professor Harris and Jasleen Kohli, director of the Critical Race Studies Program
Professor Harris and Professor Charles R. Lawrence, III, of the University of Hawai’i at Mãnoa
FALL 2015 | UCLA LAW MAGAZINE 65