Legal Commentary

Signing off today as a guest blogger, posting from the Law & Society Association meeting in Chicago, where many prawfsblawg alum are presenting.  As I sign off, I want to plug an upcoming event at my home institution, Western New England College School of Law (WNEC).  On Friday April 1, 2011, WNEC will host a one-day symposium on grand theorist Ivan Illich, entitled Radical Nemesis: Re-Envisioning Ivan Illich's Theories on Social Institutions. 

In the 1970s and 1980s Illich published foundational works including DeSchooling Society (1971), Tools for Conviviality (1973), Medical Nemesis (1975), and Gender (1982), examining social institutions ranging from schools to education to health care.  Some viewed him as a radical visionary, others considered him a retrograde conservative.  The symposium will consider whether Illich's work has renewed relevance today.  Papers in progress address topics ranging from access to health care to educational equity, decarceration to racial justice.  Confirmed participants include Martha Ertman of the Univ. of Maryland, Shannon Minter of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Anthony Farley of the Albany Law School, and James Forman, Jr. of Georgetown Univ. Law Center.  Organizing WNEC faculty include Bridgette Baldwin, Erin Buzuvis, Matthew Charity, Taylor Flynn, Anne Goldstein, Jennifer Levi, Sudha Setty, and Giovanna Shay. 

WNEC is located in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, close to Amherst and Northampton, and within a short drive of Bradley International Airport.  Abstracts are due to Prof. Erin Buzuvis by December 1, 2010, at ebuzuvis@law.wnec.edu.  The symposium web site includes details and the call for papers.