LatCrit

From Critical Legal Theory to Academic Activism

Francisco Valdes, Steven W. Bender

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781479809301
• eBook ISBN:
  9781479809325
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Civil Rights in Law
• Index: Law

Examines LatCrit's emergence as a scholarly and activist community within and beyond the US legal academy

Emerging from the US legal academy in 1995, LatCrit theory is a genre of critical outsider jurisprudence—a vital hub of contemporary scholarship that includes Feminist Legal Theory and Critical Race Theory, among other critical schools of legal knowledge. Its basic goals have been: (1) to develop a critical, activist, and inter-disciplinary discourse on law and society affecting Latinas/os/x, and (2) to foster both the development of coalitional theory and practice as well as the accessibility of this knowledge to agents of social and legal transformative change.

This slim volume tells the story of LatCrit's growth and influence as a scholarly and activist community. Francisco Valdes and Steven W. Bender offer a living example of how critical outsider academics can organize long-term collective action, both in law and society, that will help those similarly inclined to better organize themselves. Part roadmap, part historical record, and part a path forward, LatCrit: From Critical Legal Theory to Academic Activismshows that with coalition, collaboration, and community, social transformation can take root.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword: The Gran Trecho That Is LatCrit by Margaret E. Montoya
• Preface
• 1. Background and Origins: “LatCrit”
• 2. Foundations: LatCrit Values and Guiding Principles
• 3. LatCrit Contributions to OutCrit Jurisprudence: Five Substantive Highlights
• 4. Community and Method: Building Zones of Critical Safety
• 5. LatCrit Praxis: Personal, Collective, and “Glocal”
• 6. Critical Pedagogy: Transforming Legal Education and Targeting Systemic Injustice
• 7. Designing and Sustaining Self-Governance: Theory, Digital Presence, and Bricks and Mortar
• 8. Looking Ahead: Staying Nimble Yet Grounded
• Afterword: El Espíritu de Resistencia by Sumi Cho and Angela P. Harris
• Acknowledgments
• General Discussion Questions
• Appendix A: LatCrit Self-Study
• Appendix B: LatCrit Annual/Biennial Conference Publications, 1996–2020
• Appendix C: International and Comparative Law Colloquium Publications, 1996–2020
• Appendix D: South-North Exchange Publications, 2003–2020
• Appendix E: Study Space Publications, 2007–2020
• Appendix F: Free-standing Symposium Publications and Books
• Appendix G: LatCrit Scholarship Research Toolkit Thematic Index—List of Themes
• Appendix H: Excerpt from Mission Statement for Living Justice Institute at Campo Sano
• Notes
• Further Readings
• Index
• About the Authors