Integrating Doctrine & Diversity Speaker Series: Book Release Kick Off Celebration
This event is co-sponsored by Roger Williams University School of Law and City University of New York School of Law.
The virtual program introduces the newly released book Integrating Doctrine and Diversity: Inclusion and Equity in the Law School Classroom.
Drawing upon the experience of faculty from across the country, Integrating Doctrine and Diversity is a collection of essays with practical advice, written by faculty for faculty, on specific ways to integrate diversity, equity and inclusion into the law school curriculum. Chapters will focus on subjects traditionally taught in the first-year curriculum (Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Legal Writing, Legal Research, Property, Torts) and each chapter will also include a short annotated bibliography curated by a law librarian. With submissions from over 40 scholars, the collection is the first of its kind to offer reflections, advice and specific instruction on how to integrate issues of diversity and inclusions into first-year doctrinal courses.
Meet the Speakers
Nicole P. Dyszlewski is one of the editors of Integrating Doctrine and Diversity: Inclusion and Equity in the Law School Classroom. She currently serves as the Head of Reference, Instruction, and Engagement at the RWU Law Library and as an adjunct professor. She received a B.A. from Hofstra University, a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, and an M.L.I.S. from the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Library and Information Studies. She is a member of the Massachusetts State Bar and the Rhode Island State Bar. Her areas of interest are mass incarceration, access to justice, and systems of race and gender inequality in law. Nicole was the 2020 recipient of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Volunteer Service Award and the 2015 recipient of the AALL Emerging Leader Award.
Twitter:@LibrariaNicole
Raquel J. Gabriel is the Director of the Law Library and a Professor of Law at CUNY School of Law who teaches Legal Research and Advanced Legal Research. An active member of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), from 2010 – 2013 she penned a series of columns in AALL’s Law Library Journal, geared towards exploring diversity issues in the law library profession. Professor Gabriel was included in Celebrating Diversity: A Legacy of Minority Leadership in the American Association of Law Libraries, 2nd ed. (2018), where she was recognized for her leadership role within the Association.
Professor Gabriel presents frequently on integrating diversity issues into teaching legal research, including the inaugural Teaching the Teachers Conference in 2019 for law librarians, and was invited back to present in 2020. She is a co-editor of the book Integrating Doctrine and Diversity: Inclusion and Equity in the Law School Classroom (2021), a collection of essays with practical advice, guidance, and reflections on ways to integrate diversity, equity and inclusion into the first-year law school curriculum. Professor Gabriel also contributed to the Legal Research chapter in the book. She received her B.A. from American University, J.D. from Howard University School of Law, and M.L.S. from Rutgers University.
Suzanne Harrington-Steppen is the Associate Director of Pro Bono Programs and the Director of Summer Public Interest Externship Program at RWU Law. Suzanne received a B.A. in Political Science from Boston College and a J.D. from City University of New York School of Law. Prior to joining the Law School as the Project Coordinator for the Pro Bono Collaborative, Suzanne completed a two-year federal clerkship with the Honorable Kevin Nathaniel Fox, United States Magistrate Judge in the Southern District of New York. Prior to law school, Suzanne worked as a policy analyst for the California Food Policy Advocates and as a community organizer for the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness.
Jeremiah Ho Professor Ho is an Associate Professor at UMass Law. He writes about law and inequality, exploring such issues mostly with respect to sexuality, race, and culture. In addition, he also writes extensively on legal education, methodology, and theory. His articles have appeared in the Yale Journal of Law & Feminism, the Harvard Journal on Legislation, The Georgetown Law Journal Online, the Journal of Legal Education, the Utah Law Review, the Kentucky Law Journal, and the U.C. Davis Business Law Journal. Professor Ho is currently a regular contributor on the Humans Rights at Home Blog, and his blog postings on sexuality and race often garner mentioning by SCOTUS Blog.
Professor Ho teaches Contracts I & II, Trusts & Estates, Remedies, and Law Review Note Writing. For his work in the classroom, the University of Massachusetts recently awarded him the Manning Prize for Excellence in Teaching, a university system-wide teaching prize. At UMass Law, Professor Ho has been named Professor of the Year for a record six times, an award given by students to the most outstanding teacher on the faculty. And in 2014, Professor Ho was selected for inclusion in Lawyers of Color’s 50 Law Professors Under 50.
Prior to joining UMass Law, Professor Ho taught at Washburn University School of Law. He was the inaugural fellow at the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning, co-sponsored by the law schools at Gonzaga University, Washburn University, and the University of Arkansas, Little Rock.
Clanitra Nejdl is Head of Professional Development and Research Services Librarian at the Alyne Queener Massey Law Library at Vanderbilt University. She is also a Lecturer in Law, teaching both 1L and advanced legal research instruction. Prior to joining Vanderbilt in 2019, she served for five years as a reference and instructional services librarian and an assistant professor at the Northern Illinois University College of Law Library. Clanitra’s scholarship focuses on legal research pedagogy, diversity, equity, and inclusion in legal education, legal information preservation, and access to justice.
Clanitra earned her Juris Doctor degree and a Certificate in Advanced Legal Writing, Research and Drafting from the Mercer University School of Law and her M.L.I.S. from the University of South Carolina. She is a licensed attorney in South Carolina, where she provided public policy advocacy on behalf of low-income communities in the areas of affordable housing, homelessness, hunger, and community economic development, and in Georgia, where she represented indigent clients in a variety of civil cases.
Clanitra is the 2021 recipient of both the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Emerging Leader Award and the AALL Spectrum Article of the Year Award. She is the 2017 recipient of the AALL Minority Leadership Development Award, as well as a 2016 Fellow of the AALL Leadership Academy. Clanitra is an active member of the American Association of Law Libraries, the Southeastern Chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries, the Mid-America Association of Law Libraries, and the Chicago Association of Law Libraries.
Hoang Pham is a Research & Policy Fellow for the Stanford Center for Racial Justice at Stanford Law School. He previously spent 10 years working in education to improve outcomes for low-income Black and students of color—six years as an elementary school teacher in South Los Angeles and four as a consultant with the Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning. He graduated from the University of California, Davis School of Law, where he was a Martin Luther King, Jr. Public Interest Scholar and clerked at the National Center for Youth Law and Public Advocates. Hoang seeks to spark systemic change and advance racial justice by elevating the voices of marginalized youth and communities in law and policy.
Anna Russell is a US Court Librarian, managing the Alaska library branch. She provides legal research support for Circuit, District and Bankruptcy court staff. Staying current with information technology tools and trends, she was thrilled to have the opportunity to edit the 2021 Integrating Doctrine and Diversity: Inclusion and Equity in the Law School Classroom Carolina Academic Press teaching book. She is currently serving on the Federal Bar Association’s Task Force on Access to Justice and is a member of the American Association of Law Libraries since 2011. Prior to her librarian work, she worked as an intelligence analyst for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She has also honorably served as a United States Surface Warfare Naval Officer, living for a time in Manama, Bahrain and visiting many ports across the Pacific Ocean. In her free time, Anna is helping to raise a now 1-year old Alaskan malamute puppy names Seirios.
.png)
Genevieve B. Tung is the Associate Director for Educational Programs at the Biddle Law Library at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. In this role, she teaches and coordinates Biddle’s legal research instruction for 1L, upper-level JD, LLM, and Masters in Law students. She received a JD from Fordham School of Law and a MLIS from the Drexel University College of Computing & Informatics, and was previously a member of the law library faculty at Rutgers Law School in Camden, New Jersey. Before becoming a law librarian, Genevieve practiced with the intellectual property group of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in New York.