Five scholars visited Gainesville to honor UF Law Professor Nancy Dowd's book The Man Question in a workshop Nov. 18.

Toward the end of her keynote address, a man stood in the back of the crowd and asked internationally renowned feminism legal theorist and family law expert Martha Fineman if she thought her own views were just too good to be true.

Before a crowd of about 60 at the Nov. 18 event that brought five legal scholars from across the country to Gainesville to honor UF Law professor Nancy Dowd’s book The Man Question, a man asked Fineman, the founder and director of the Feminism Legal Theory Project, if her views on masculinities and manhood were nothing more than wishfully “utopian.”

And through a near 40-minute discussion on the legal ramifications of defining gender only on the rigid binary system of man and woman and her hopes of changing that system, Fineman would argue that she certainly hoped not.

Fineman’s opening address set the stage for the rest of the day’s workshop, “Asking ‘The Man Question,’” where legal scholars from Tennessee to Las Vegas discussed the legal obstacles in place when asking the question of what makes a man a man and a woman a woman. The gender-bending question tangles the legal web in areas ranging from sexual harassment suits and defining what the “reasonable victim” standard is, it arises in the forceful male-only registration in the Selective Service and it stretches deep into the American household when fathers are forced into defining what roles are inherent in fatherhood vs. motherhood.

“For one thing, law relies on categories that are entrenched,” Fineman said.

The utopian solution? Ending the binary classification of man vs. woman that plagues our legal systems and entering into an “everybody-is-vulnerable,” multiplicity-of-identities legal structure in which the law books don’t classify men solely as men or women solely as women. The law must include shared experiences, backgrounds and the knowledge that people of both genders are inherently different, Fineman said.

Dowd agreed.

“It’s so easy to say, ‘Men behave this way, this happened because men are like that.’ [But] radical egalitarianism is our goal,” she said.

And in a day’s worth of speeches and discussions of how we’ve created a man’s world that invoked the mention of Ice Cube, Joe Paterno and a weeping Tim Tebow, it was evident to the audience that trying to figure out how to redefine how our legal society looks at men and women would be difficult.

Utopian, almost.

“Thinking about this as a part of cultural change is critical,” Dowd said.

And Ann McGinley, William S. Boyd professor of law at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, would go so far as to say the law’s current gender dichotomy was not only harmful but heteronormative and reflective of an anti-gay bias.

“The law should not pressure men to prove masculinity,” McGinley said. “The law should not reinforce harmful gender norms.”

Touching on Dowd’s criticism on the way the juvenile justice system profoundly impacts boys, particularly black boys, professor Frank Cooper from Suffolk University, had a harsh analysis of the law’s gendered binary system.

“The system is profoundly gendered,” Cooper said of the nation’s justice system. “In addition to it being gendered, it’s raced.”

Through four speakers praising the work of UF Law’s Nancy Dowd and UF Law’s Center on Children and Families, which sponsored the workshop, Dowd and the panel of distinguished speakers asked the audience to leave with one question: If we are all not created equally, how can we apply the law to benefit us all?

Fineman’s answer, while less than utopian, provides the only imperfect answer.

“We must engage the law [as is] because we cannot stand outside of it.”

Justice for Kids: Keeping Kids Out of the Juvenile Justice System, Edited by Nancy E. Dowd

UF Law Professor Nancy Dowd served as editor of a new book that brings together scholarly works from leading academics and activists on preventing children from becoming caught up in the juvenile justice system.

The book, Justice for Kids: Keeping Kids Out of the Juvenile Justice System was released earlier this month.

“The juvenile justice system does not function well for kids, their families, or the community,” said Dowd, who is also the director of UF Law’s Center on Children and Families. “This book provides concrete, cutting-edge reforms to insure fairness and justice to kids, while insuring that resources are conserved and spent wisely to promote the goal of supporting kids to productive adulthood.”

While some youths in the juvenile justice system quickly move out, never to return, others continue on a path that takes them deeper and deeper into it. Here, the book’s contributors look at ways to intervene at an early stage to prevent kids from going down that path in the first place.

The book also calls for the re-evaluation and restructuring of the juvenile justice system and for greater consideration to race, gender and sexual orientation.

It will take place 10 a.m. in HOL 345.

In The Man Question, author Dowd takes up the challenge of theorizing the construction of manhood and masculinity as an anti-essentialist project that can sit with feminist discourses.

As Dowd argues, men’s treatment by the law varies by race, age, economic position, sexuality, and many other factors. Her work questions how we know and value the lived experiences of men, not in order to deny men’s privilege but to explore the price, structure, and contradictions of that privilege.

As her primary examples, she explores men’s experience of fatherhood and sexual abuse, and boys’ experience in the contexts of education and juvenile justice. How we, as a society, arrive at the contextual and anti-essentialist goals Dowd prescribes presents questions worthy of vigorous discussion and debate.

This workshop brings together leading masculinities scholars to discuss how understanding the diverse characteristics and consequences that attach to manhood help us comprehend the nature of privilege and subordination.

Speakers will explore questions of masculinity across the diverse areas of employment discrimination, criminal law, and international law, and constitutional law. In addition, participants will grapple with theoretical questions of history, identity, vulnerability, and the limitations of equality rights. Refreshments in the morning and lunch will be provided to attendees.

Check out the event flier here and RSVP to Debbie Willis by Nov. 11 to reserve a spot.

Nancy Dowd
David H. Levin Chair in Family Law and Director, Center on Children & Families “Rick Scott dodges answers by invoking Fifth Amendment, Democrats claim in ad” (Oct. 12, 2010, PolitiFact Florida)

A new ad from Alex Sink’s gubernatorial campaign points out that GOP candidate Rick Scott invoked his Fifth Amendment right 75 times in a deposition regarding fraud allegations aimed at his hospital chain, Columbia/HCA.

From the article:
“The Fifth Amendment is not a shield against fishing expeditions,” said Nancy Dowd, a UF Levin College of Law professor. “If you want to cloak yourself in the protection of the Fifth Amendment, it has to be for the reason that your answer could result in criminal liability.”

Teresa Drake
Director, Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Clinic (IPVAC)
TV interview – “Family Spotlight” on IPVAC Clinic (Oct. 7, 2010, WCJB-TV 20)

Drake discussed intimate partner violence crimes as well as the new Intimate Partner Violence Asisstance Clinic – of which she is the director – in this TV 20 spotlight.

Thomas Hurst
Professor Emeritus and Sam T. Dell Research ScholarHurst presented a paper entitled “The Use of Clawbacks to Recoup Excessive Executive Compensation After the Worldwide Financial Crisis” at the Cambridge Symposium on Economic Crime at Jesus College, Cambridge University in September.

Clifford Jones
Associate In Law and Lecturer “Ambler’s suit to knock Norman off ballot goes to trial Tuesday” (Oct. 11, 2010, The Tampa Tribune)

State Rep. Kevin Ambler filed a lawsuit seeking to disqualify Hillsborough County Commissioner Jim Norman for running for state senate and remove him from the November ballot. The lawsuit claims Norman failed to report a house in Arkansas owned by his wife, mostly paid for by a former friend and political supporter.

From the article:
State law says disqualification is an appropriate penalty if a candidate deliberately fails to list assets on state financial disclosure forms, said Clifford Alan Jones, a professor at the University of Florida law school.

“But it is not clear to me if a court would order (disqualification) prior to completion of an Ethics Commission hearing,” Jones said.

Diane Mazur
Professor “Congress, not courts, may have final word on ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’” (Oct. 11, 2010, Law.com)

Mazur commented on the recent federal court rulings regarding the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and the previous court cases they cited in their decisions.

From the article:
“Although these Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell cases are not criminal prosecutions, not sodomy prosecutions, the courts in both Witt and Log Cabin said, ‘We’re still talking about the same constitutional liberty,’ ” said Diane Mazur, a professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and legal co-director of the Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, which focuses on military issues including Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Judge orders ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ injunction” (Oct. 12, 2010, Associated Press)

Last week a federal judge issued an injunction to stop the enforcement of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, to be effective immediately. Mazur commented on the president’s position on the issue.

From the article:
“The president has taken a very consistent position here, and that is: ‘Look, I will not use my discretion in any way that will step on Congress’ ability to be the sole decider about this policy here,’ ” said Diane H. Mazur, legal co-director of the Palm Center, a think tank at the University of California at Santa Barbara that supports a repeal.

The article ran in a number of media outlets, including The New York Times.

Mazur was quoted in AP’s “Quotations of the day.” ”The whole thing has become a giant game of hot potato. There isn’t anyone who wants to be responsible, it seems, for actually ending this policy. The potato has been passed around so many times that I think the grown-up in the room is going to be the federal courts.” – Diane H. Mazur, a legal expert at a think tank at the University of California at Santa Barbara in comments after a federal judge ordered the military to immediately stop enforcing its ban on openly gay troops.

Jon Mills
Dean Emeritus Director, Center for Governmental Responsibility
Animal activists mount protests of UF researcher” (Oct. 8, 2010, Gainesville Sun)

A UF researcher has been the target of animal rights activists because of a connection to research done relating to experimentation on primates. A website has been created with the researcher’s address and a picture of his home on it and protests have been planned in Gainesville and in the researcher’s neighborhood in the future. The approach indicates a shift in animal rights activists’ tactics, focusing on individuals involved or related to research rather than the larger entities who sponsor it. Currently the situation appears to be a protest rather than a threat, according to UF police.

From the article:
The courts typically have given wide latitude to free-speech rights in such cases, said UF law professor Jon Mills, who wrote a recent book on privacy. But he said a civil case is possible if someone is being slandered with false information, and other legal action also could be taken in the case of a threat. “People can say a lot of things online if it falls short of actual slander, but one thing that the courts get nervous about is if they say or imply actual threats,” he said.

“Summary of 6 statewide constitutional amendments and one nonbinding referendum” (Oct. 12, 2010, Gainesville Sun)

With six proposed changes in the Florida Constitution on the November ballot, Mills addressed the issue of Florida Supreme Court’s language standards that can sometimes make the wording of amendments confusing to some voters.

From the article:
“The language has to be less than 75 words and explanatory of everything (the amendment) does and be approved by the Supreme Court,” said Jon Mills, a University of Florida law professor. If it’s not in the title, “it would be considered deceptive. The Supreme Court has taken several initiatives off the ballot for being misleading,” he said. Nonetheless, initiatives and constitutional amendments are one of the people’s rights and one that should be taken seriously, Mills said. “They are there permanently,” Mills said. “Putting something in the constitution is hard, and getting it out is even harder.”

Alyson Flournoy
Professor of Law,
Director, Environmental & Land Use Law Program
Flournoy coordinated and served as editor for a report that was released recently on regulatory failures in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and how to avoid future catastrophes. The report – “Regulatory Blowout: How Regulatory Failures Made the BP Disaster Possible and How the System Can Be Fixed to Avoid a Recurrence” – was written under the auspices of the Center for Progressive Reform and can be found here.

“Study shows BP oil spill could have been prevented by regulation” (Sept. 30, 2010, Inhabitat.com)

The oil spill regulations report coordinated and edited by Flournoy was used as the basis for this article, which presents some of the report’s findings.

From the article:
“‘BP is responsible for this disaster, without question,’ said study co-author Alyson Flournoy, CPR Member Scholar and law professor at the University of Florida. ‘But the Minerals Management Service’s permissive approach to its regulatory responsibilities together with inadequate legislative mandates for safety and environmental protection, and Congress’s inadequate funding of MMS created an environment that allowed BP to take shortcuts with safety, with disastrous results.’”

“Greater oversight from feds needed to avoid another BP oil spill” (October 4, 2010, The Examiner)

Flournoy was interviewed about the CPR study that was released last week about the ideas presented in the study.

An excerpt from the interview:
“So, to another point cited in the report, why in the world is the big business of oil so cozy with those who regulate the industry? And while CPR is calling for changes now, why didn’t they occur sooner?”
“Flournoy laughed heartily. It seemed so obvious, and yet she said ‘the sad fact is when you read the current statute that governs drilling for oil and gas — our public natural resources — there is very, very little attention to health, safety or environmental protection …And over time that helped to create an environment with a weak agency with little or inadequate funding and lack of a mandate to protect the public, and the environment became a captive of industry and dependent on industry. So now, it is abundantly and sadly, tragically obvious that we need this kind of independence.’”

Fletcher N. Baldwin, Jr.
Emeritus Professor
Baldwin is currently on a three-week lecture series on the subject of international financial crimes and money laundering at Beijing University and the University of Shanghai.

Nancy Dowd
David H. Levin Chair in Family Law and Director, Center on Children & Families
Dowd just received reprints for her recently published article, “The “F” Factor: Fineman as Method and Substance” for a colloquim celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Feminism and Legal Theory Project, 59 Emory Law Journal 1191 (2010).

Shani King
Associate Professor
King presented “The Ethics of Representing Children” with adjunct professor Gabriela Ruiz to the Children’s Legal Services Grantees Conference, a statewide conference of children’s legal services advocates. The intent was to explore some of the complex ethical issues that arise in the legal representation of children.

Lyrissa Lidsky
Stephen C. O’Connell Chair
“Deltona ‘gigolo’ says his online ads are legal” (Oct. 4, 2010, Daytona Beach News-Journal)

Lidsky commented on an article about online ads on websites like Craigslist.org and Backpage.org where escort services are advertised. Although Craigslist.org has banned the ads, Backpage.com has not; and they are not screening the ads.

From the article:
“Lyrissa Lidsky, a professor of law at the University of Florida, said commercial speech proposing a transaction gets less protection than other types of speech.”
“‘(An ad) has to be lawful. It has to propose a lawful transaction,’ she said. ‘It seems to me if these are transparently ads for illegal activities, then the First Amendment protection is not there.’”
“The question of what liability media outlets incur when publishing ads suggestive of illegal behavior remains open, Lidsky said, pointing to two pre-Internet cases involving the magazine Soldier of Fortune. In the 1980s, the magazine published classified ads for mercenaries that led to two cases that resulted in murders.”

Joseph Little
Emeritus ProfessorLaw shields Volusia from beach-driving suits” (Oct. 3, 2010, The Daytona Beach News-Journal)

Little comments in this article that examines cases where pedestrians have been hit or killed by cars driving on the beach in Volusia County, and why there have been few cases of the county facing lawsuits because of it. One main reason is the doctrine of sovereign immunity, which in Florida, extends to planning-level decisions, but not operational-level actions.

From the article:
“‘Whether or not to put up a traffic light at a particular intersection is a planning-level decision,’ explained Joseph Little, emeritus professor at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law. ‘Once you put it up and, say, the light burns out, and the city fails to replace the light … and a crash occurs, that would be operational.’”
“Ironically, Little pointed out, those signs [the county has recently put on the beach] could actually make the county liable.”
“‘If you put up a sign that people begin to rely upon, and someone knocks it down, and the county doesn’t put it back up again in a reasonable amount of time … there could be certain risks,’ he said.”

Jon Mills
Dean Emeritus Director, Center for Governmental Responsibility Rutgers University case highlights how advancing technology can easily be misused” (Oct. 4, 2010, Orlando Sentinel)

Mills commented on privacy in the digital age in an article that looks at technology and the law in relation to the case of the Rutgers University student who committed suicide.

From the article:
“‘The core problem is the technology has gotten so far ahead of our culture that we don’t realize collectively the impact,’ said Jon Mills, a law professor at the University of Florida, and nationally known expert on privacy. ‘It’s so easy to intrude … that intrusions are going to happen. We have to both realize that and we have to learn to punish too.’”
“Mills and prosecutors weren’t aware of any proposals to toughen the law in Florida.”

Winston Nagan
Samuel T. Dell Research Scholar Professor of Law Founding Director, Institute for Human Rights and Peace DevelopmentMarco Rubio’s Tea Party: A blank check” (Oct. 6, 2010, The Gainesville Sun)

Nagan contributed an op-ed article where he criticized Republican senatorial candidate Marco Rubio’s seeming lack of fresh ideas or willingness to express his position on issues. Nagan also criticized the Tea Party movement, citing racist motivations and misguided ideas about governance.

From the article:
“In the hope of finding something fresh in Rubio’s ideas, alas, I listened as he recited some old hackneyed phrases from the GOP headquarters in Washington. He was incredibly disappointing. So I wonder what it is that has energized the Tea Party community in their ardent support of him. I take three of the points he has made and try to show that candidate Rubio has almost no sense of what’s going on.”

Gabriela Ruiz
Adjunct Professor
Ruiz presented “The Ethics of Representing Children” with Professor Shani King to the Children’s Legal Services Grantees Conference, a statewide conference of children’s legal services advocates. The intent was to explore some of the complex ethical issues that arise in the legal representation of children.

Michael Seigel
Professor“Lawmakers seek to close corruption loophole” (Oct. 1, 2010, Security Management)

Seigel’s testimony during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing regarding the Supreme Court’s decision in Skilling v. United States was referenced in an article examining the case. The hearing was to discuss legislation regarding honest services mail and wire fraud.

From the article:
“Michael L. Seigel, University of Florida Research Foundation Professor of Law, agreed with Breuer, but also noted that Congress should make the new law specific in establishing what conduct would be illegal. Such precise language is necessary, said Seigel, to prevent erroneous interpretation.”

Michael Siebecker
Associate Professor
Recently presented “Corporate Social Responsibility and a New Discourse Theory of the Firm” at the EABIS 9th Annual Colloquium on Corporate Responsibility and Emerging Markets at St. Petersburg State University Graduate School of Management (Russia).

He also presented “Corporate Social Responsibility and the Law: An Alternative Career Path for Lawyers” for the Corporate and Securities Litigation Group and Association of Law & Business at the Levin College of Law.

Atilla Andrade

ProfessorAndrade will be speaking to the members of the Home Builders Association of Florida on the new opportunities for Florida builders in his home country of Brazil.

Nancy Dowd

Professor; David H. Levin Chair in Family Law; Director, Center on Children & FamiliesDowd presented “Barriers to Redefining Fatherhood: Masculinities and Nurture,” as part of a panel on “Redefining Parenthood” at the National People of Color Conference at the Seton Hall University School of Law. The talk focused on how dominant social and cultural concepts of masculinities, as well as public policy founded on an economic definition of fatherhood, operate as barriers to redefining fatherhood around men nurturing their children.

Paul Gugliuzza

Legal Skills ProfessorGugliuzza co-authored and published “Ten Federal Circuit Cases From 2009 That Veterans Benefits Attorneys Should Know,” in American University Law Review, with Miguel F. Eaton and Sumon Dantiki.

Berta Esperanza Hernández-Truyol

Levin Mabie & Levin Professor of LawHernández-Truyol presented “On Post-Racial and Post-Other Isms: A Human Rights Approach to Justice” at the National People of Color Conference at the Seton Hall University School of Law.

Shani King

Associate Professor; Co-Director, Center on Children and FamiliesKing presented “The Family Law Canon in a (Post?) Racial Era” at the National People of Color Conference at the Seton Hall University School of Law. He argued that the canon of family law inaccurately describes a race-neutral or post-racial state for family law and that the canon should correct its colorblindness so that legal authorities can address the problems that structural racism creates for African-American families. The article was the first to engage the canon’s relationship to race, or more specifically, to African-Americans in an in-depth and sustained way.

JoAnn Klein

Development Director, Center for Governmental ResponsibilityTim McLendon and JoAnn Klein, both of CGR, have just completed and published a two-year study on “Economic Impacts of Historic Preservation in Florida, Update 2010.” This was a joint CGR project with the Center for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers University in New Jersey and also involved UF Emeritus Professor of Law Jim Nicholas. The study was funded by a grant from the Florida Dept. of State Division of Historical Resources.

Joseph Little

Professor Emeritus“Health reform amendment thrown off Florida ballot” (Sept. 13, 2010, American Medical News)

Little commented on the Florida Supreme Court’s decision not to include a challenge to the national health care reform bill on November’s ballot on the grounds that it was not worded to accurately represent the amendment’s impact.

From the article:
“The Florida Supreme Court has denied several proposed amendments because they were inaccurately worded, said Joseph W. Little, professor of law emeritus at the University of Florida Levin College of Law in Gainesville. Often the authors try to insert confusing wording to make the proposal sound like something more attractive than it is.” “‘My guess is the Legislature was attempting to create votes for this [amendment],’ Little said.”

Pedro Malavet

ProfessorTV interview (Sept. 15, 2010, WCJB TV-20)
Malavet commented about UF Law being ranked no. 5 for Hispanic students by Hispanic Business magazine.

Tim McLendon

Staff Attorney, Center for Governmental ResponsibilityTim McLendon and JoAnn Klein, both of CGR, have just completed and published a two-year study on “Economic Impacts of Historic Preservation in Florida, Update 2010.” This was a joint CGR project with the Center for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers University in New Jersey and also involved UF Emeritus Professor of Law Jim Nicholas. The study was funded by a grant from the Florida Dept. of State Division of Historical Resources.

Don Peters

Professor; Trustee Research FellowDon Peters, along with his co-author Catherine Ross Dunham, professor and associate dean at Elon Law School has published “Civil Procedure: Skills and Values” in the new LexisNexis Skills and Values series.

Sharon Rush

Irving Cypen Professor of LawRush presented a paper at a conference in Athens, Greece in July that was sponsored by the Athens Institute on Education and Research. Her paper focused on what the U.S. and South Africa can learn from each other about fixing a problem we share: the existence and persistence of racially identifiable and unequal schools.

Michael Seigel

UF Research Foundation Professor“Granting of transfer requests ‘rare’” (Sept. 13, 2010, Ocala Star-Banner)

A federal judge recently denied Lee Farkas’ motion to have his case moved from Virginia to Florida. The former chairman of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. was indicted on fraud charges earlier this year.

From the article:
“‘To move a case because it presents an inconvenience to the defendant is…an extremely rare event,’ said Mike L. Seigel, a law professor specializing in criminal law and white collar crime at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. To actually succeed in moving a trial, moreover, a case must be ‘really, really high profile and very emotional, typically,’ Seigel added.”

Danny Sokol

Assistant ProfessorSokol presented his research at the Latin American Competition Forum in San Jose, Costa Rica. The event was organized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Inter-American Development Bank, the Comisión para Promover la Competencia (COPROCOM) and the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce of Costa Rica.

Sokol’s article “Antitrust, Institutions and Merger Control” was published in the George Mason Law Review.

Students, faculty and community members discuss race relations and Michelle Alexander's new book. (Photo by Joey Springer)

Students, faculty and community members came together for a book discussion on Wednesday, Sept. 15, in anticipation of legal scholar and Ohio State University Moritz College of Law Professor Michelle Alexander’s upcoming visit.

The discussion focused on Alexander’s new book, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” which is the topic of Alexander’s lecture Wednesday, Sept. 22, at noon in the UF Law’s Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom.

The book examines the current state of race and racial justice in the United States, stating that the racial caste system that existed during the pre-civil rights era is still in place, it has just been redesigned.

Alexander points out that even though the U.S. has elected its first black president, many young black men remain disadvantaged in major U.S. cities because they are labeled as felons or are already behind bars. The criminal justice system – while maintaining an outward stance of colorblindness – serves as a modern means of racial control, according to the book.

Katheryn Russell-Brown, Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations, and Nancy Dowd, Director of the Center on Children and Families, organized the event with the goal of having “informed conversations about these important topics,” Brown said.

“We, as faculty, are no more knowledgeable or insightful than you, as students,” Dowd said. “We are all trying to find our way together in examining these important issues. It was a profound experience to read this book.”

At the book discussion, Adessa Barker, 3L, noted the differences between the new and old Jim Crow. “It’s subtle. Once you get the stamp of ‘convict,’ it affects your whole life, and puts your family into a downward spiral.”

The New Jim Crow calls for a reevaluation of the current system and seeks to bring the issue of mass incarceration to the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in the U.S.

The discussion is sponsored by the Center on Children and Families and the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations. The event is free and open to the public.

About Michelle Alexander:
Alexander joined the OSU faculty in 2005 where she holds a joint appointment with the Moritz College of Law and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. Prior to joining the OSU faculty, she was a member of the Stanford Law School faculty, where she served as Director of the Civil Rights Clinic. Alexander has significant experience in the field of civil rights advocacy and litigation. She has litigated civil rights cases in private practice, as well as engaged in innovative litigation and advocacy efforts in the non-profit sector. For several years, Alexander served as the director of the Racial Justice Project for the ACLU of Northern California, which spearheaded a national campaign against racial profiling by law enforcement. While an associate at Saperstein, Goldstein, Demchak & Baller, she specialized in plaintiff-side class action suits alleging race and gender discrimination. Alexander is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Vanderbilt University. Following law school, she clerked for Justice Harry A. Blackmun on the United States Supreme Court and for Chief Judge Abner Mikva on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Presented “Promoting Agricultural Production, Healthy Communities and Biodiversity through Ecoagriculture” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Fletcher Baldwin

Presented a paper titled, “The rule of law: an essential component of the financial war against organized crime and terrorism in the Americas, Uruguay round,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Commented on the panel, “Financial Crime & Street Crime,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Elizabeth Dale

Commented on the panel, “The Intersection of Law & Society with Public Labor and Employment Law,” and she presented a paper at a panel (which she organized), “Deploying History: Uses of the Past in Constitutional Discourse, Comparative Studies,” at the Law and Society Association conference in Chicago in May.

Nancy Dowd

Dowd made presentations on masculinities and feminist theory at two conferences in March at Harvard Law School and the Center for Applied Feminism at the University of Baltimore Law School.

Joan Flocks

Co-authored a paper titled, “The Role of Employers and Supervisors in Promoting Pesticide Safety Behavior among Florida Farmworkers,” which was published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 53(8):814-824, 2010. Flocks was also one of six invited reviewers nationwide for a report by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, “Assessing the Effects of the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill on Human Health” which came out of a June 2010 meeting and is currently available for free in prepublication at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12949.

Commented on the panel, “Comparative Perspectives on the Environmental/Human Rights Link in the Americas,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Berta Hernandez-Truyol

Commented on the panel, “Comparative Perspectives on the Environmental/Human Rights Link in the Americas,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Lea Johnston

Johnston presented “Wrestling with the Problem: Exploring the Promise of Social Problem-Solving Theory for Representational Competence,” at the American Psychology-Law Society Annual Conference in March, and presented her current work-in-progress, “Mental Health Courts: Theoretical and Empirical Deficiencies,” at the SEALS new scholars workshop in early August.

Pedro Malavet

Presented a paper titled, “Comparative Law as Looking Glass: What Foreign Legal Systems Can Teach us About Ours,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Martin McMahon

Published “Living with the Codified Economic Substance Doctrine” in 128 Tax Notes 731 (Aug. 16, 2010).

Timothy McLendon

Presented “Eco-Constitutionalism: Authority or mandate? Florida’s awkward experience” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Commented on the panel, “Agro-Ranching and the Environment,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Jon Mills

Commented on the panel, “Emerging Legal Issues in Uruguay and the Americas,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Stephen Powell

Presented a paper titled, “Managing the rule of law in the Americas: an empirical portrait of the effects of 15 years of WTO dispute resolution on civil society in Latin America,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Commented on the panel, “Trade, Business, and Dispute Settlement,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Michael T. Olexa

Presented a paper titled, “Chemicals, Cosmetics, and Consumers,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Don Peters

Presented a paper titled, “It Takes Two to Tango, and to Mediate: Legal Cultural and other Factors influencing United States and Latin American Lawyers’ Reluctance to Mediate Commercial Disputes,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Leonard Riskin

Presented “Finding the Appropriate Problem Definition in Mediation” at the Annual Symposium on Dispute Resolution in the Courts in April.

Danny Sokol

Sokol was announced as the series co-editor of the new series “Global Competition Law and Economics,” to be published by Stanford University Press. He has also been appointed as one of the members of the editorial advisory board for the “Antitrust Chronicle,” a publication of Competition Policy International.

Jeff Wade

Commented on the panel, “Agro-Ranching and the Environment,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Nancy Dowd

Do feminists see women as a diverse group in need of support and men as only one thing: male and privileged?

A new book by University of Florida Law Professor Nancy Dowd, “The Man Question: Male Subordination and Privilege,” (NYU Press), says it’s time to change this perspective and apply the feminist anti-essentialist view to males as well as females.

Dowd explains that feminism is credited with getting us to “ask the woman question” in virtually every discipline and in public policy, to question women’s status and to challenge women’s absence. Feminism readily acknowledges that all women are not created equal, and many factors, including race and class, help define individuals. Men receive a less-nuanced analysis.

“The core message of the book is that gender analysis is not just for women and girls; it is also for boys and men,” said Dowd, UF Law’s David H. Levin Chair in Family Law and director of the Center on Children & Families. “That means asking the man question, both when we are aware that men are at the heart of the issue, and when we tend to overlook them.”

In the book, Dowd draws from masculinities scholarship as well as feminist analysis to examine issues of manhood and masculinity. She ultimately demonstrates how both subordination and privilege is constructed for men and boys. She suggests how “the man question” should be asked, and then explores some examples of where this leads; including for boys, education and juvenile justice; and for men, fatherhood and adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

As these questions are asked, it is critical to see differences among men, rather than treating all men as alike. We need to not only ask “what about men?” but also “are all men alike in this situation?” Dowd said.

“Sometimes some men are more disadvantaged than others, particularly along lines of race and class,” Dowd said, illustrating her message by pointing out the disproportion of boys and men in the juvenile justice and adult criminal justice populations. Those men and boys in the system are also disproportionately men of color, she said.

Ultimately, Dowd seeks to expand our understanding of privilege and subordination by incorporating the study of masculinities into feminist theory.

“My prior scholarship had focused most recently on fatherhood, which combines my interest in family law and gender issues,” Dowd said. “In the course of writing a book on fathers, it was clear to me that masculinities were a critical barrier to shifting fatherhood toward a care-giving, nurturing model.”

Dowd also credits her law students for challenging the norms of gender analysis that pointed out the need for the book.

“Gender analysis is all about equality and justice, and once you begin that scrutiny, it is not limited to one particular group or category. The equality of all is essential.”

Dowd is also editor and a contributor for the book, “Justice for Kids: Keeping Kids Out of the Juvenile Justice System,” which is scheduled for publication next year. She is the author of two previous books – “In Defense of Single Parent Families” and “Redefining Fatherhood” – and co-author of two books – “Feminist Legal Theory: An Anti-Essentialist Reader” and “Handbook: Children, Culture and Violence.” Her areas of expertise include Constitutional law, family law, feminist jurisprudence, employment discrimination and civil rights. She can be reached at dowd@law.ufl.edu. View her faculty page at http://www.law.ufl.edu/faculty/dowd/.