Frank Rudy Cooper
What's the most important thing you are working on right now?
I am thrilled to be helping Professor Addie Rolnick organize the Doing Justice conference, which takes place this Monday and Tuesday in the Thomas and Mack Moot Court Facility. It will feature a keynote address by Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford at 9:00 a.m. Then, at 10:30 a.m., there will then be a panel on Reforming Criminal Justice Institutions, which features presentations by law professors, an activist, and a reporter, and will be moderated by our own Professor Eve Hanan.
At 2:00 p.m. Monday, I will moderate a discussion introducing Boyd’s new Program on Race, Gender, and Policing that will feature scholars from across the country. The Program will explore the relationship between race, gender, and the ways people are policed. It will sponsor periodic events relating to its mission and help facilitate partnerships with UNLV, local, state and national partners. This discussion will consider a wide range of topics, including sexual assault, the school-to-prison-pipeline, and immigration.
At 6:00 p.m. Monday, there will be a special keynote at The Mob Museum in Downtown Las Vegas featuring George Washington Law School professor Cynthia Lee. Professor Lee will talk about reforming the legal standard for police use of force.
Finally, beginning at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, we will have a panel on Critical Perspectives with a wide range of scholars and activists, including Boyd’s Professor John Valery White. That panel will be moderated by federal district court judge Richard Boulware. The whole event is going to be amazing for us Criminal Justice geeks.
What will you do with your summer vacation?
First of all, I will be glad to get time to work on my articles. One is on police resistance to the criticisms of groups like #SayHerName, and how we can help them hear those groups. Another article is on historic splitting of the working-class along race lines through education. I’ll also get to take a couple trips back to Cambridge, Massachusetts and other spots on the East Coast. Summer is the time to visit the Northeast; but I’m happy that I live here year-round.