scholarships for those who intend to work in” Latin American Legal education.”
Alumnus Alicia Miana de Lovelace recently gave a$ 1 million gift to the UCLA School of Law in honor of the late founder of the institution’s Critical Race Studies program.
According to the Daily Bruin, the Laura E. Gómez Teaching Fellowship on Latinx People and the Rules will provide scholarships for “four to five” individuals who intend to work in” Latinx legal academia.”
The fellows have a term of service of up to nine years and are” will be compensated for their research and teaching” that includes a lecture on “how political, emigration, and criminal law affect Latinx folks.”
Gómez, who’s set to leave, was the first director of the law university’s Critical Race Studies programme, served as dean of the Division of Social Sciences, and as vice-dean of the School of Law according to her university website. She also was faculty advisor to the Latino student group La Raza, the Chicano-Latino Law Review, and the Womyn of Color Collective.
Miana de Lovelace currently co-chairs the UCLA Second Century Council, which provides guidance to the chancellor on university philanthropy strategy.
While teaching, fellows will also be mentored by Critical Race Studies professors ,]Critical Race Studies program Director Jasleen ] Kohli said. By giving Latinx students a deeper understanding of the legal field, she added, the mentorship program will provide a much-needed pipeline.
Kohli added that the School of Law’s Critical Race Studies program is one of the nation’s only academic programs dedicated to teaching about race and the law, making its faculty mentorship opportunities unique.
” We have a lot of really great faculty who could serve as mentors for the next generation of legal scholars,” she said. ” That’s what we seek to do”.
Some articles written by the fellows will be published in law reviews, further strengthening their experiences, Kohli said.
Ariela Gross, a distinguished professor at the School of Law, said,” This is a really important thinking field where we want to nurture young scholars and advance the field.”
In a 2020 interview, Gómez ( pictured ) said reparations for the Latino ( or Latinx ) community is” a long due conversation”, noting the ruination of Central America’s “indigenous way of life” by the United States military and corporations.
She also advocated for amnesty for illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States and political asylum for Central Americans.
Gómez had the final say in the 2017 academic year regarding the firing of attorney and free speech lecturer Keith Fink at UCLA.
MORE: Professors get$ 1 million to apply’ critical race studies’ to the classics
IMAGES: Andrey Popov/Shutterstock .com, UCLA
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