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Can Female Academics Say "No" Both Professionally And Elegantly To Excessive Work Demand? Yes, But You Might Have To Call A Friend, Angela Mae Kupenda Jan 2018

Can Female Academics Say "No" Both Professionally And Elegantly To Excessive Work Demand? Yes, But You Might Have To Call A Friend, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

Whether one’s academic supervisor is a White man or woman, or a person of color, the ability to say “no” to our supervisors is critical for one’s professional success and personal wellbeing. Some of us are incessantly asked to take on extra service, extra duties, to relieve someone else because they have “more important things” to do, and “just to do it” because it must be done and because we have that extra strength in our DNA, some seem to think.


Continuing Derrick Bell's Devotion In Creative Action, Angela Mae Kupenda Nov 2017

Continuing Derrick Bell's Devotion In Creative Action, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

I remember my first time seeing Derrick Bell in person and hearing him speak, just a few years before he passed away. I was in awe of him for many reasons, but primarily for two reasons. First, I noted from watching him with his devoted students, how mutual was the devotion coming from him—devotion to them as people and as those who would surely carry on his great work of seeking to forge equality in America and beyond. And second, I was in awe of him because of his devotion to the elimination of racism, while at the same time …


Embracing Our First Responder Role As Academics - With Inspiration From Langston Hughes, Angela Mae Kupenda Oct 2017

Embracing Our First Responder Role As Academics - With Inspiration From Langston Hughes, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

In the midst of the post-2016 political crisis, our role as academics is that of First Responders. In physical crises, like a fire, First Responders play an important role. They intentionally put themselves in harm’s way to fulfill an overarching purpose of helping others, even at their own risk. They strategically prepare, train, and work for years to prepare for this role in the midst of crisis. As academics who care about equality, we are First Responders.


Equality Lost In Time And Space: Examining The Race/Class Quandary With Personal Pedagogical Lessons From A Course, A Film, A Case, And An Unfinished Movement, Angela Mae Kupenda Jan 2016

Equality Lost In Time And Space: Examining The Race/Class Quandary With Personal Pedagogical Lessons From A Course, A Film, A Case, And An Unfinished Movement, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

This essay is both personal and pedagogical. My hope is that it issues a clarion call to legal educators and administrators to choose the pursuit of racial and class equality. I believe that, as law faculty and administrators, we must first address our personal quandaries with race and class before we can effectively address the racial and class implications in our pedagogical or administrative roles in legal education. This essay focuses on race and class and is a clarion call for legal academics and administrators to address ongoing structural racism and classism in our institutions, by starting with our own …


Mentoring Pluses For Underrepresented Faculty, Angela Mae Kupenda Jan 2016

Mentoring Pluses For Underrepresented Faculty, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

Much has been written about the demands from mentoring students. Mentoring is regarded as service work placed on top of faculty demands of teaching, scholarship, and more service. While the benefits to underrepresented faculty are numerous, here I focus on three: mentoring students can help save our career when we are tempted to leave the building running fast; mentoring students can provide student allies to help verify the truth about our greatness; and, mentoring students helps to pass on the legacy.


Chip Off The Old Block, Jim Rosenblatt Jan 2015

Chip Off The Old Block, Jim Rosenblatt

Journal Articles

What a proud moment it is for a father or mother to have a child pursue the same vocation as the parent. There is something affirming about knowing that a child has observed your work, your lifestyle, your colleagues, and your impact on the world, and chooses to follow in your vocational footsteps. A child who claims the lifestyle and work of the parent, after having observed it close at hand for a number of years, sends a positive message to the parents that what they are doing is worthwhile enough to be emulated. One son chose to attend law …


'Truth And Reconciliation': A Critical Step Toward Eliminating Race And Gender Violations In Tenure Wars, Angela Mae Kupenda, Tamara F. Lawson Jan 2015

'Truth And Reconciliation': A Critical Step Toward Eliminating Race And Gender Violations In Tenure Wars, Angela Mae Kupenda, Tamara F. Lawson

Journal Articles

In this Article, the co-authors confront one of the next generation issues for underrepresented groups in legal education: what happens after tenure victories, especially for the victors in a war wrought with gender and racial inequities? Even if all is fair in love, war, and tenure battles, it remains most troubling when, even in this century, acts of racial and/or gender aggression are targeted at qualified tenure candidates. These violations of the "tenure rules of engagement" based on implicit or explicit racial or gender bias preserve discriminatory practices that impact underrepresented groups and maintain the status quo in the academy …


Reflections On Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections Of Race And Class For Women In Academia Symposium--The Plenary Panel, Maritza I. Reyes, Angela Mae Kupenda, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Stephanie M. Wildman, Adrien K. Wing Jan 2014

Reflections On Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections Of Race And Class For Women In Academia Symposium--The Plenary Panel, Maritza I. Reyes, Angela Mae Kupenda, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Stephanie M. Wildman, Adrien K. Wing

Journal Articles

Presumed Incompetent was produced thanks to the vision and commitment of its editors: Dr. Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Dr. Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. González, and Angela P. Harris. This symposium came to fruition because the Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice invited the two law professor editors, Professor Harris and Professor González, to convene a distinguished group of scholars from Canada and the United States to expand and deepen the conversation initiated by the book. The very successful day-long symposium and the publication of the resulting articles were made possible by the resources, time, and dedication provided by …


On The Receiving End Of Influence: Helping Craft The Scholarship Of My Students And How Their Work Influences Me, Angela Mae Kupenda Jan 2014

On The Receiving End Of Influence: Helping Craft The Scholarship Of My Students And How Their Work Influences Me, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

My essay is divided into two parts. In part one I share about the struggle I had to endure to even allow myself the opportunity to be influenced by my students. Institutional struggles and professorial expectations as to how the academy should operate were hurdles I had to clear. Also, I had personal hurdles of making the commitment that I did for over five years. In part two, I primarily focus on some of my law students’ scholarship over the past five years and reflect on the life changing influence they have had on me. Their work and dedication have …


The Tenure Of A Law School Dean: It's Not How Long You Make It - It's How You Make It Long, Jim Rosenblatt Jan 2011

The Tenure Of A Law School Dean: It's Not How Long You Make It - It's How You Make It Long, Jim Rosenblatt

Journal Articles

In May 2003, I attended the New Deans Course in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This event took place several months before I assumed my responsibilities as the Dean of Mississippi College School of Law in Jackson, Mississippi (“MC Law”). Although some “repeat deans” attended this course, the great majority were serving as deans for the first time. A topic of discussion amongst those deans was the question of how long they planned to serve. Even at this early juncture, some knew that in the not too distant future they would be returning to the faculty to resume teaching. Others took the …


Negotiating Social Mobility And Critical Citizenship: Institutions At A Crossroads, Michelle D. Deardorff, Angela Mae Kupenda Jan 2011

Negotiating Social Mobility And Critical Citizenship: Institutions At A Crossroads, Michelle D. Deardorff, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

A Black law professor who teaches at a predominantly White law school and a White public law professor who teaches at a historically Black university in the same southern, urban community are co-authors of this Article. Here, in this piece, we explore the tension between the goals of our institutions and many other institutions to improve the socioeconomic status of our students with our personal goals of preparing students to challenge societal injustice and to be critical citizens who are willing to challenge a government that engages in abusive actions or is exploitative of its citizenry.


Academic War Strategies For Nonviolent Armies Of One, Angela Mae Kupenda Jan 2011

Academic War Strategies For Nonviolent Armies Of One, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

To engage the legal system in necessary critical action, critical actors are required. The law cannot be uprooted, re-sowed, and re-cultivated, unless future legal professionals engage in such action. And for future legal professionals to engage in such action, generally, they must first be engaged in critical thought during their legal educations. Moreover, for such thought to occur, the legal academy must include a diverse group of voices, minds, and experiences to engage with those seeking such a critical education. These critical voices may be in short supply in the academy for multiple reasons. One specific reason, though, is that …


Law School Faculty As Mentors, Jim Rosenblatt Jan 2006

Law School Faculty As Mentors, Jim Rosenblatt

Journal Articles

Professors see potential in our students that they do not see themselves. Based on his or her knowledge of the student and his or her awareness of student performance in the classroom and on examinations, a professor might suggest a career path, an intern opportunity, a research topic, an advanced degree, or a job contact that the student had not considered through the "door opening" process by which the professor opens doors and helps the law student see what is behind that door. Without this mentoring assistance that door may never have been opened by the student left to her …


Lessons Learned By A New Dean, Jim Rosenblatt Jan 2004

Lessons Learned By A New Dean, Jim Rosenblatt

Journal Articles

The account of my first year as dean of the Mississippi College School of Law in no way should focus on me as an individual, for my life and my decanal endeavors were inextricably woven into the life of the law school. The account of my first year as a "new dean" must, therefore, be a recounting of the events and activities of the law school in the academic year 2003-2004. Through this brief account, I shall share the story of the law school from my perspective and along the way recount the lessons I have learned and the nuggets …


On Teaching Constitutional Law When My Race Is In Their Face, Angela Mae Kupenda Jan 2003

On Teaching Constitutional Law When My Race Is In Their Face, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

Constitutional Law is one of my favorite subjects to teach. You see, I am a 45-year-old southern-born, black woman who not only studies constitutional law, I lived it. I attended separate and unequal schools, survived freedom of choice programs, suffered Jim Crow laws, and was a beneficiary of consent decrees and affirmative action programs. I love discussing and debating issues relating to race, gender, etc. I love constitutional law, but many of my students do not love the subject or, perhaps, care for hearing about my related experiences.


Diversity: Do You Really Want It?, Angela Mae Kupenda Jan 2003

Diversity: Do You Really Want It?, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

Diversity. Do you really want it? In many of the diversity workshops I have attended, the facilitators assume that the answer is yes and set out to help the educational institution acquire more diversity. But given continuing fears and prejudices in our society, this is a mistaken, and perhaps premature assumption. Yet, when you are asked, as an educator or administrator, whether you want students of different races and colors, from varying socio-economic backgrounds, and with different perspectives, your response may be that "wanting" is irrelevant. You "need" diversity given our country's changing demographics, your institution's need to generate tuition …


Law School Professors Comment On The Campus Boycott Of Justice Clarence Thomas: Did They Do The Right Thing?, Angela Mae Kupenda Jan 2002

Law School Professors Comment On The Campus Boycott Of Justice Clarence Thomas: Did They Do The Right Thing?, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

The black professors' only mistake occurred if they assumed that, like white professors, they would be found deserving of two core professorial rights: the right of academic freedom and the right to exercise individual moral responsibility. The harsh critics of the black professors' boycott of Justice Thomas' speech are trying to deny the professors these core professorial rights/duties that are ordinarily heaped upon white professors without reservation.


Making Traditional Courses More Inclusive: Confessions Of An African American Female Professor Who Attempted To Crash All The Barriers At Once, Angela Mae Kupenda Jan 1997

Making Traditional Courses More Inclusive: Confessions Of An African American Female Professor Who Attempted To Crash All The Barriers At Once, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

"WE MUST DISMANTLE all barriers at once!"' "No, go slow!" These were two of the opposing cries heard during, the civil rights movement. Some thought the only way to eliminate exclusiveness, based on race and gender, was to dismantle all the barriers all at once. Others thought the costs of such change too great and urged for caution and patience. Even in the 1990s, barriers of exclusiveness continue to exist, even in the law school classroom. Here I share my story of how, as a beginning law school professor, I tried to bring change to the law school classroom. I …