On October 8th, Professor Elayne Greenberg presented her paper Harnessing the Paradox of Racial Stressors: Reimagining Racism Education While Reducing Cancel Culture Casualties at the 14th Annual AALS Section on Dispute Resolution Works-In-Progress Scholarship Conference. This year’s conference was hosted by the Straus Institute at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law.

Here is an abstract of the article:

Law school administrators and professors are now being compelled to rethink their law school curriculum so that it more accurately reflects how systemic racism is embedded in our legal system. Get it wrong, and individual professors and administrators risk being cancelled.

This article provides the first dispute system framework to implement pedagogy on racism in law school. Although the focus is on skills courses and clinics, the suggested framework is applicable to all law school classes. The prescribed approach draws on an interdisciplinary understanding of the physiology and psychology of racial stressors and, building on that knowledge, explains how racial stressors in law school impact learning about racism. While respecting students’, professors’, and administrators’ individual wiring regarding racial stressors, a goal is to educate law students about how to become effective advocates when confronting the inherent racism in legal practice.