Centre for Law & the Environment co-hosts a series of webinars on Anti-Racism & the Law

The Centre for Law & the Environment is proud to collaborate with the Anti-Racism & the Law Initiative (ARLI), Indigenous Legal Studies and the Centre for Business Law at Allard Law School to organize a series of webinars that tackle the challenge of combatting racism in contemporary law, with a focus on systemic injustices that are of particular relevance to the law school and UBC more broadly.  

ARLI is an initiative of Allard faculty members who believe that humanity is at a critical juncture in our collective struggles for social Justice. The Black Lives Matter movement brought police violence and a racially unjust criminal legal system to the forefront of public consciousness. Similarly, the unequal impact of COVID-19 on racialized, Indigenous, and working-class communities highlights entrenched forms of inequality.

This webinar series takes up the challenges of this moment and is organized by a diverse coalition of faculty members seeking to work together, across difference, on issues Allard Law must engage with, as a community of thoughtful scholars and perceptive educators.

The first webinar in the series, on October 5, 2021, was entitled "Twenty Years of a 'War on Terror': Islamophobia, Race, Gender and Imperialism" and featured presentations by: 

• Natasha Bakht, Professor and Shirley Greenberg Chair for Women and the Legal Profession, University of Ottawa: "Niqab Bans and Anti-Muslim Racism: Routes in Law"
• Arun Kundnani, Author of The Muslims are Coming! and Independent Scholar: "Abolish National Security"
• Sunera Thobani, Professor, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia: "Islamophobia: The (Re)making of the International Order"

The webinar was moderated by Brenna Bhandar, Associate Professor, Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia. You can watch the recording on YouTube. 

The second webinar, on November 24, 2021, is called "Bearing a Disproportionate Burden: Law, Race, Colonialism and Environmental (In)Justice" and features presentations by:

• Ingrid Waldron, Professor and HOPE Chair in Peace and Health, McMaster University, will speak on environmental racism against communities that identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Colour in Canada
• Deborah McGregor, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Environmental Justice, York University, will speak on Indigenous environmental justice and injustice in Canada
• Dr. Muna Dajani, Senior Research Associate, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, will speak on decolonial approaches to countering environmental injustice in Palestine.

The webinar is moderated by Stepan Wood, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Law, Society & Sustainability, University of British Columbia.

Future seminars will include:  

Tues, Jan 25th, 12:30-2pm: Virtual discussion with authors Abigail Bakan (Professor, Department of Social Justice Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto) and Yasmeen Abu-Laban (Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Politics of Citizenship and Human Rights, Department of Political Science, University of Alberta) on their book Israel, Palestine and the Politics of Race: Exploring Identity and Power in a Global Context  (Bloomsbury, 2019).

April 11th-14th: Green College Visiting Professors Roderick Ferguson and Gail Lewis  will hold two in-person workshops at UBC and give one hybrid (in person and virtual) public lecture each. The workshops will focus on critical methodologies and will bring together scholars working on Indigenous and/or anti-racist, feminist methods across geography, political theory, sociology and law. 

Other seminars may explore themes of police abolition, Black Lives Matter and anti-racism in contemporary legal education. Stay tuned for updates!