Brought to you by Dr. T. Anansi Wilson (JD/PhD) and the Center for the Study of Black Life and the Law. On November 16th, we began our State of Black Life and The Law Speaker Series--a series leading up to our first annual Black Life and the Law Symposium, where we'll honor Christina Sharpe among others--with a panel titled: “The State of Black Life and the Law: A BlaQueer Lens” featuring a selection of interdisciplinary BlaQueer, trans and nonbinary scholars of democracy, race, political theory, gender/sexuality, Black Indigenous imagination, lgtbq+ studies, undocumented movements, higher education, public law, racial threats and trauma, and Black and Latin American Studies.

The panel featured Drs. T. Anansi Wilson (Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Race/AntiBlackness and Law, Democracy), Founding Director, Center for the Study of Black Life and the Law, Mitchell Hamline School of Law)

Dr. Jenn Jackson (Political Science, Syracuse University)

Dr. Julian Kevon Glover (Gender, Sexuality & Women's Studies/Dance & Choreography) Virginia Commonwealth University),

Dr. Alan Pelaez Lopez (Chicana/o Studies, trans* studies, Black Indigenous Imaginations),

Mx Mycall Akeem Riley (Director, Gender & Sexuality Center for Queer & Trans Life at University of MN).

This roundtable will began by asking each of the scholars to reflect and expound, for five minutes, on the question “What is the state of Black life and the law?” The panelists each answered the open ended question, before we engaged in an open ended roundtable discussion between these esteemed guests, and finally, our MHSL community and those joining us from around the nation.