CLEAR Faculty Fellow Presentations Explore Race, Equity and Social Justice

07.01.24 – On June 3 and 13, 2024, the Center for Law, Equity and Race (CLEAR) Faculty Fellows presented their projects before Northeastern University School of Law faculty, staff and students, gathered online and in the Moot Courtroom in Dockser Hall. The cohort for the 2023-24 academic term included Northeastern’s Philosophy Professor Adam Hosein, also the Director of the Politics, Philosophy, and Economics Program, and Affiliate Professor of Law; Stearns Trustee Professor of History and Global Studies Kris Manjapra; Associate Professor of Journalism and Africana Studies Caleb Gayle; and Professor of Law and International Affairs Zinaida Miller, who is also faculty co-director for the Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy.

Their presentations explored several important and pressing topics in the fields of restorative and transitional justice, public history and philosophy.

“The work of our Faculty Fellows continues to make important contributions to many of the challenging issues related to race, equity, and social justice. This year’s work has extended to the international arena and underscores the importance of exploring potential solutions outside of the traditional US legal framework,” said Dr. Deborah A. Jackson, CLEAR managing director. “We look forward to more opportunities to engage other faculty members in this work.”

On June 3, Hosein started proceedings by pondering the pivotal question “What counts as racial discrimination?” In his community presentation, Hosein considered a new definition of racial discrimination that simultaneously recognizes the role of broad social and structural inequality, and respects ideals of individualism. He argued that his “Exclusion Approach” would explain the role of oppression in a theory of discrimination, while also respecting commitments to moral individualism. His theory, he said, would permit affirmative action.

“Affirmative Action doesn’t channel any negative ideology,” said Hosein. “There’s no pervasive anti-white ideology … It can’t just be that it says you’re denied because of your race, it has to say that you’re understood to be less equal in society, and I don’t think white people are pervasively perceived of less equal in society.”

Manjapra delivered his community presentation next, titled Dead Reckoning: Black Ancestors and the Museum Complex, in which he showcased the Ancestral Entities Project. Working with historian and graduate student Kehinde Benson Ilegbusi (CSSH ’26) they have collated almost 80 collections of ancestral entities currently owned by or on display in Western museums. Manjapra also discussed the #FindingCeremony movement, acts of “Black commemoration,” he said, like those led by activist Abdul Ally Muhammad in Philadelphia, to have ancestral remains returned to and reburied by the communities they once called home.

“All of this points to the entwined history of racial science, colonial conquest and law, and what I term necro-speculation,” said Manjapra, “or the making of super-profits through the ongoing theft and exploitation of dead Black and Indigenous people.”

Watch the June 3 Presentations

On June 13, Miller presented her project titled Haunting Justice: Racing and De-Racing Through Transitional Justice. She discussed the nature and origins of transitional justice, before moving on to discuss the contemporary challenges this mode of justice must overcome to remain relevant. These include accountability and historical redress, the problems associated with truth commissions and testimony, as well as the ongoing debate over reparations and responsibility.

Speaking on the future of transitional justice as an approach, Miller said “there are still questions live in the field, and it has enough ongoing power, that I think the question of whether [transitional justice] is useful to push the boundaries, is still ongoing.”

Gayle rounded off the Faculty Fellows’ series, with his presentation of research conducted, with CLEAR’s support, for his latest book Black Moses, which explores the genesis of the Black exodus during the last few years of Reconstruction, Black indigeneity, and the creation of the Old West. Gayle’s work also reveals how this history has impacted Black citizenship and land ownership, the ramifications of which are still felt by Black communities across the American West today.

During this presentation, titled Black Utopia Building and Memory as Salvation, Gayle asserted that Black Moses is “very unconcerned in appealing to the rules of journalism.” Gayle’s writing has been published in many titles, including The New York Times, The Guardian, and the Atlantic. He described his work here as “actively not objective,” and his role as an oral historian.

He detailed his experiences recording the histories of Black farmers, cowboys and Indigenous communities, and spoke to the challenges of preserving this history.

“We need to engage more in helping people identify that the stories that they have, even the aspirational part of their stories that never came true, are just as important,” he said.

Watch the June 3 Presentations

About the Center for Law, Equity and Race (CLEAR)

Worldwide, recent attention on the role of law and legal systems in creating and perpetuating seemingly intractable racial inequalities and disparities provide an opportunity to create real change. At Northeastern Law, the Center for Law, Equity and Race (CLEAR) brings together our pioneering programs and faculty — long engaged in theoretical and translational research, innovative pedagogy and collaborations with external communities — to address today’s challenges and provide tomorrow’s solutions for the nation’s most complex social challenges. As one of the law school’s five Centers of Excellence, CLEAR offers an interdisciplinary convening space for faculty and students across the university who want to have an impact on these issues.

Two dynamic programs are at the core of the CLEAR’s work: the nationally recognized Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ), led by Professor Margaret Burnham, and the highly regarded Criminal Justice Task Force (CJTF), led by Professor Deborah Ramirez. These projects have a common goal—building from historical memory and working to address the racial injuries of the past through the use of law, teaching, techniques of restorative justice and community partnerships. Both share a methodological focus on law as it intersects with history and other disciplines, resulting in deeply interdisciplinary investigations of race, law and justice.