The Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty & The Northeast People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference Friday, June 2, 2017 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.   Saturday, June 3, 2017 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. About the Conference Brooklyn Law School is proud to host the joint 2017 Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty (CAPALF) and Northeast People of Color (NEPOC) Legal Scholarship Conference. The theme of this year’s conference is “Law, Intersectionality, and the Next Wave of Social Movements in the Trump Era.” From LGBTQ rights to DREAMers to the Movement for Black Lives to new forms of labor organizing among precarious, low-wage, on-demand workers, the social movements of today are increasingly operating at the intersections of multiple communities, identities, and structural injustices. This in turn has created a unique confluence of alliances, collaborations, and common purposes in addressing underlying structural exclusions, inequities, and imbalances of power. Yet as the 2016 election revealed so starkly, these movements for equality and inclusion have also provoked a virulent reactionary populism and counter-reaction. What are the opportunities, challenges, and implications of these 21st century movements? As scholars and activists, what role can we play in forging new alliances and strengthening existing ones, advancing the goals of these social movements, and furthering longer-term political and social power? How do we encourage even more conversation between scholars and activists to effect real change? How do we ensure that these new alliances among multiple communities advance common goals without obscuring real differences? And how should we understand and gird ourselves against the various forms of counter-reactions, including those based on the fear of a majority-minority America? These are just some of the questions this conference will address. Location Brooklyn Law School 250 Joralemon Street Brooklyn, NY www.brooklaw.edu/directions Please respond by May 15 Guests may register for one or both days of the conference. The registration fee will cover the following (subject to change): Friday: Morning continental breakfast, lunch, coffee & snack break. Saturday: Morning continental breakfast, lunch, coffee & snack break, dinner and award ceremony. The conference registration fees are as follows: Two Day Registration Fees: $125 Full-time Law Professors, Payment due by May 15 $70 Others (not including Law School students), Payment due by May 15 One Day Registration Fees: $75 Full-time Law Professors, Payment due by May 15 $35 Others (not including Law School students), Payment due by May 15 The program is free of charge for Law School students. Registration is required. Space is limited. Below are links to travel/hotel information, panel descriptions and a call for panel presentations, WIPs, and a call for award nominations and important deadlines: For Travel and Hotel InformationClick Here: (Deadline for discounted rate at Brooklyn Marriott is May 4; deadline for discounted rate at Nu Hotel is May 2) Panel Descriptions and Call for Group Panels and Individual Papers Click Here: (Deadline for proposing a group panel: February 28) Call for Professional Development Workshops, Works In Progress, Award Nominations Click Here: (Deadlines for all of the above: February 28) If you have any questions, please contact Deborah Post at deborahp@tourolaw.edu or Elaine Chiu at chiue1@stjohns.edu. For questions related to registering, please email events@brooklaw.edu.

The Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty issued the following statement on February 1, 2017

We, members of the Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty, condemn President Trump’s executive order, issued on January 27, 2017, which suspends U.S. refugee admission for “nationals of countries of particular concern,” and applies to citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, including persons already legally authorized to enter the United States and, at least initially, lawful permanent residents.

The United States has made the grave mistake of discriminatory exclusion before.  The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first federal law to enact a wholesale ban on immigration on the basis of race, ethnicity, or nationality.  It remained in effect until 1943, and was not fully dismantled until 1965.  Congress banned other immigration from Asia from 1917 to 1952.

Asian American history teaches us that wholesale exclusions and bans of an entire people on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin are not only morally and constitutionally problematic, but also counterproductive to actual national security objectives. During World War II, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Empire, perceived threats to national security led President Franklin Roosevelt to sign an executive order that authorized the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans, nearly two-thirds of whom were U.S.-born citizens. A Congressional commission later called the incarceration a “grave injustice,” motivated by “racial prejudice, war hysteria, and the failure of political leadership.”

Our country should not repeat such extreme actions.  Congress apologized for Chinese Exclusion in 2011 and 2012.  In 1988, President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, issuing a formal apology and monetary reparations to surviving Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II.  Today, President Trump’s executive order is not only discriminatory.  It also harms our national interests by creating the impression that the U.S. is at war with the Muslim world, a false notion that terrorist groups like ISIS would like to foster.

We urge the President to rescind this Executive Order immediately.  Should the Order stand, we urge Congress to use its authority over immigration law to repeal the ban and the courts to protect the rights of individuals singled out unjustly and unproductively for their religion or national origin.

Signatories:   

Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty

Individual Signatories:

Afra Afsharipour

Muneer Ahmad

Aziza Ahmed

Sameer Ashar

Lorraine Bannai

Anupam Chander

Bob Chang

Stewart Chang

Williamson Chang

Stuart Chinn

Margaret Chon

Kim D. Chanbonpin

Ming Chen

Pat Chew

Colleen Chien

Andrew Chin

Gabriel J. Chin

Sumi Cho

Rose Cuison-Villazor

Meera Deo

Veena Dubal

Rashmi Dyal-Chand

Seth Katsuya Endo

Anthony Farley

Hemanth Gundavarum

Shubha Ghosh

Rashmi Goel

Miye Goishi

Neil Gotanda

Leah Chan Grinvald

Aya Gruber

Pratheepan Gulasekaram

Danielle Kie Hart

Margaret Hahn-Dupont

Yoshinori H.T. Himel

Cynthia Ho

Emily M.S. Houh

Margaret Hu

Cathy Hwang

Carol Izumi

Anil Kalhan

Helen Kang

Jerry Kang

Catherine Yonsoo Kim

Janine Kim

Rosa Kim

Suzanne Kim

Susan Kuo

Lisa Ikemoto

Thomas Joo

Holning Lau

David Law

Brant T. Lee

Cynthia Lee

Eumi Lee

Rebecca Lee

Andrew Leong

Nancy Leong

Christine Lin

Joseph C. Liu

Maya Manian

Mari Matsuda

Kaiponanea Matsumura

Setsuo Miyazawa

Saira Mohamed

Seema Mohapatra

Hiroshi Motomura

Eric L. Muller

Sharmila L. Murthy

Jyoti Nanda

Phil Tajitsu Nash

Karl Okamoto

Nancy Ota

Huyen Pham

Tanya J. Pierce

Jaya Ramji-Nogales

Jayesh Rathod

Song Richardson

Victor Romero

Natsu Saito

Evangeline Sarda

Susan Serrano

Theodore P. Seto

Patrick Shin

Wadhia Shoba

Shirin Sinnar

Mai Linh Spencer

Madhavi Sunder

Mary Szto

Steph Tai

Daniel P. Tokaji

Alex L. Wang

William K. Wang

Carwina Weng

Kaimipono Wenger

Margaret Y.K. Woo

Eric Yamamoto

Tseming Yang

Alfred P. Yen

Peter K. Yu