8 a.m. – 3 p.m.

The annual program, sponsored by the UF Law Center on Children and Families and the Criminal Justice Center, will host the Pace Center for Girls – Alachua at the law school. Each year, the Youth Summit informs young people about rights, responsibilities and consequences of their actions.

Noon

Albie Sachs, retired Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and life-long freedom fighter in the struggle against apartheid, will speak about gay marriage at the University of Florida Levin College of Law Tuesday, March 26 – the same day the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case challenging California’s ban on gay marriage.

“Gay Marriage and the Promise of Equality” will be at noon in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom, HOL 180, with a book signing immediately following. The talk is free and open to the public. Parking restrictions in the green areas at the law school will be lifted for the event.

Sachs’ talk is co-sponsored by UF Law’s Center on Children and Families and UF’s Center for African Studies.

Sachs will also be giving a talk at the Center for African Studies at 4 p.m. titled, “Combating Corruption: Kenya’s Efforts to Judge its Judges.”

Description: A two-day interactive training for Lawyers, Financial, and Mental Health Professionals. Cost is $400.00 per person, though a discount is available to groups of four or more with at least two professionals participating. Student discount may also be available.

This event is an approved 15 CLE and 16.5 MHP. For more information please visit our website at http://www.law.ufl.edu/collaborativetraining. Brought to you by Gainesville Collaborative Divorce Team and co-sponsors Center on Children & Families, Institute for Dispute Resolution, & University of Florida Levin College of law.

The lecture is titled “Regulating the Global Market in Babies: No Private Placements, No Choice of Color, No Returns” and will be held Wednesday at noon in the Chesterfield C. Smith Ceremonial Classroom, Holland Hall 180 at the University of Florida Levin College of Law campus.

The topic of the lecture is adoption and special attention will be given to the areas of international adoption and comparative perspectives on adoption.

“Given the high profile of many celebrity adoptions, and the concerns raised for children in times of crisis such as the earthquake in Haiti, this promises to be a provocative and timely talk,” said Director for the Center on Children and Families and David H. Levin Chair in Family Law Professor Nancy Dowd.

Woodhouse is one of the foremost experts on children’s rights and is the founder of the Center on Children and Families at UF Law, where she was a faculty member from 2001-2009.

The Center on Children and Families Weyrauch Distinguished Lecture in Family Law was made possible by an endowment supported by Frank G. Finkbeiner (JD 72) and T.W. Ackert (JD 72).

For more information on the Center on Children and Families or the lecture series, visit their Web page.

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, the fact remains that 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.

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.

Contact: Melissa Bamba, The Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations, 352-273-0614, bamba@law.ufl.edu or Debbie Willis, Center on Children & Families, 352-273-0613, willisd@law.ufl.edu.

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 352-273-0930 or dowd@law.ufl.edu. View her faculty page here.

Sponsored by the UF Law Center on Children and Families and Institute for Dispute Resolution, this intensive two-day training provided interdisciplinary professionals with cooperative methods of practice and skills to assist their clients in resolving conflict and reaching a fair and equitable settlement.

“Collaborative law is an entirely different way of thinking, acting and talking as compared to the traditional litigation model,” said Robert J. Merlin, a workshop participant and a Coral Gables attorney experienced in collaborative law. “This training benefited those who are new to collaborative law litigation as well those of us who are experienced collaborative professionals.”

Breakout sessions provided participants the opportunity to focus on skills unique to their specialty as well as joint sessions where trainees learned how the interdisciplinary, collaborative team-model works. The curriculum covered each stage of the collaborative process and offered an interactive experience using real life case examples, demonstrations, role plays and team exercises. These interactive sessions provided non-adversarial strategies and techniques to help clients achieve agreement in a dignified and respectful manner.

“Participants learned how to handle collaborative matters from various stages of the case,” said Robin Davis, UF legal skills professor and director of the Institute for Dispute Resulution. “While this training focused on family law problems and practice, collaborative law may be applied to any area of the law.”

“I expect all of the participants left the training with a better knowledge of the collaborative process,” said Davis. “This training provided attendees with a better understanding of why handling divorces through the collaborative process is not only better for the clients and their children, but why it is better for all of the professionals involved in the process. While this training focused on family law problems and practice, collaborative law may be applied to any area of the law.”

The UF College of Law Center on Children and Families and Institute for Dispute Resolution are committed to educating and training a new generation of practitioners across disciplines in methods of innovative and collaborative conflict resolution in furtherance of advocating for children and families, and for a more peaceable society.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled public school segregation unconstitutional, and a national conference scheduled here March 25-26 by the University of Florida College of Law will focus on the impact and challenges of that landmark decision in observance of its 50th anniversary.

Leading educators, government officials and legal practitioners will participate in the “Beyond Brown: Children, Race and Education” forum co-sponsored by the law school’s Center on Children and Families (CCF) and the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations (CSRRR) and based on the Brown v. Board of Education decision

Opening session will begin at 4 p.m. on the 25th, in Holland Hall auditorium, and will include a screening of the award-winning documentary film, “The Intolerable Burden,” about effects of the Brown decision on a Mississippi town. Plenaries and workshops on the 26th will be at the Hilton UF Conference Center, starting at 8:30 a.m.

According to conference organizers Professors Katheryn Russell-Brown, CSRRR director, and Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, CCF director, topics will include assessing the legacy and realizing the promise of Brown, children’s role in the struggle for justice, weighing the costs and benefits of integration, politics of education reform and perspectives on equality.

Professors Leland Ware of the University of Delaware and Edgar Epps of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will give keynote addresses, respectively, at the opening and luncheon sessions on the 26th. Ware, former trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice civil division, is vice president of the national board of directors of the American Civil Liberties Union; Epps, former professor of urban education at the University of Chicago, has studied desegregation efforts and effects of vouchers, magnet and charter schools on urban education.

Among nationally known educators scheduled to speak and their affiliated universities are R. Richard Banks, Stanford; Robin D. Barnes, Connecticut; Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Washington -St. Louis; Peggy Cooper Davis, New York; David I. Levine, California-Hastings College of Law; Alfred D. Mathewson, New Mexico; and Vivian Gunn Morris, Memphis.

St. Petersburg Times columnist Bill Maxwell; accountability specialist Curtis L. Morris of Memphis, TN., city schools; Shirley, N.Y., elementary school principal Janet Windbish; and attorney Tim Shea, Orange County, FL., School Board, also will participate.

In addition to Russell-Brown and Bennett-Woodhouse, UF law school faculty taking part in the program include Nancy Dowd, Joan Flocks, Berta Hernandez-Truyol, Kenneth B. Nunn, Juan F. Perea, Sharon E. Rush, Sherrie Russell-Brown, Michelle Jacobs, Christopher Slobogin, Michael Wolf and Monique Haughton Worrell.

UF faculty participating from other colleges are Mark Fondacaro, psychology; and Regan Garner, Anane Olatunji and Sevan Terzian, education.

The Florida Bar has approved 10 hours of Continuing Legal Education credit for legal practitioners attending the forum.

Complete event details can be found at http://www.law.ufl.edu/childconference or by contacting conference coordinator Debbie Kelley, 352.392.9001, kelley@law.ufl.edu, or Barbara DeVoe, law school director of conference planning, 352,392.8070, devoe@law.ufl.edu.

Conference Administrators & information contacts:

Barbara Bennett-Woodhouse, 352.392.9001, woodhouse@law.ufl.edu
Katheryn Russell-Brown, 352.392.2225, russellBrownK@law.ufl.edu