Practicing Systemic Justice in the United States: A Working Lab
- Professor Tyler Giannini, Professor Jon Hanson
- Winter 2017 course
- 3 classroom credits
Prerequisites: By Permission. If you are interested in participating, please email giannini@law.harvard.edu, hanson@law.harvard.edu, and jlipton@law.harvard.edu (and include the words “Practicing Systemic Justice” in the subject line) so we can give you further details and make you eligible for enrollment. The Lab takes a cross-disciplinary approach, and we also encourage cross-registrants.
Exam Type: No Exam
Practicing Systemic Justice in the United States: A Working Lab seeks to develop a new way of approaching societal injustices by exploring the practice and history of struggle and applying it to contemporary problems. In conjunction with expert advisors, student teams will work to draft reports and other materials on pressing policy problems such as immigration, food, housing, technology, criminal justice, corporate responsibility, and climate change. Expert advisors will include faculty members Sabrineh Ardalan, Christopher Bavitz, Emily Broad Leib, Esme Caramello, and Phillip Torrey. Students will participate in the selection of “problems” to address, will help identify a variety of relevant experts, stakeholders, and groups facing injustice as part of researching the problem, and will coordinate and participate in drafting collaborative proposals and action plans. Teams will analyze a problem and identify possible solutions and strategies ranging from policy and legislation to litigation and organizing. Class time will be devoted to presentations, guest lectures and workshops, and discussions of the chosen problems. Students will also have the opportunity to meet with, and facilitate discussions among, experts and practitioners working on their chosen problems. Much of the work will be done outside of class in smaller groups and subgroups.