Center for Race and Law
What We Do
Understanding American law requires an understanding of the impact of race. Established in 2022 under the leadership of St. John's Law Professor Renee Nicole Allen, the Center for Race and Law provides opportunities for students, academics, practitioners, and community members to examine race and engage in idea exchange about its intersection with the law through lectures, symposia, dialogue, and scholarship. It also promotes learning and broad engagement through social media and coordinates the Law School’s race and law resources and curriculum.
About the Center
Understanding American law requires an understanding of the impact of race. Established in 2022 under the leadership of St. John's Law Professor Renee Nicole Allen, the Center for Race and Law provides opportunities for students, academics, practitioners, and community members to examine race and engage in idea exchange about its intersection with the law through lectures, symposia, dialogue, and scholarship. It also promotes learning and broad engagement through social media and coordinates the Law School’s race and law resources and curriculum.
2025 Symposium
Race, Law, and Artificial Intelligence
Join us for this virtual event that will bring together a diverse group of legal scholars, practitioners, and thought leaders to engage in discussions at the intersection of race, law, and artificial intelligence (AI). An audience Q&A will follow each panel discussion.
Date
Friday, March 21, 2025
Time
12 to 4 p.m. EST
Location
The symposium will livestream on Zoom.
Program
Welcome & Opening Remarks
- Renee Nicole Allen, Associate Professor of Law; Director, Center for Race and Law, St. John’s School of Law
- Jelani Jefferson Exum, Dean & Rose DiMartino and Karen Sue Smith Professor of Law, St. John’s School of Law
Keynote Speaker
- Ruha Benjamin, Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies; Founding Director, Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, Princeton University
Panels
Panel I: AI & Racialized Harms
Panelists:
- Diego H. Alcalá Laboy, Assistant Professor, Albany Law School
Presentation: “The ‘Founder’s Gaze’: How the Fourth Amendment is a Surveillance Technology That Enables AI to Scale Control Over the Subaltern” - Teri A. McMurtry-Chubb, Professor, University of Illinois Chicago School of Law
Presentation: “The Legal Syllogism as Racial Algorithm: Bias, Generative AI, and the Objectivity Trap in Legal Writing”
Panel II: AI & Racialized Surveillance and Predictions
Panelists:
- Raquel Coterillo Laso, Affiliate Scholar, Georgetown University
Presentation: “From The Myth Of Technological Progress To The Reality Of Inequality And Algorithmic Surveillance” - Christian Powell Sundquist, Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
Presentation: “Surveil and Suppress: The Role of AI in Racializing the Right to Protest”
Panel III: AI & Racial Identity
Panelists:
- Costanza Nardocci, Professor in Constitutional Law, Department of Italian and Supranational Public Law, University of Milan
Presentation: “Minorities and Minority Rights in the Era of Artificial Intelligence” - Shatrunjay Bose, PG Researcher, University of Southampton
Presentation: “Artificial Intelligence and Insurance Contracts: Rethinking the Duty of Disclosure for Enabling Transparency”
Register to Attend
There is no fee to attend the virtual symposium, but you must register in advance.
Questions?
Please email Professor Renee Nicole Allen at allenr1@stjohns.edu to learn more about the symposium.
Past Events
In October 2024, the Center presented Race, Law, & Popular Culture. For this informative event, Center Director Renee Nicole Allen moderated a panel of experts in the field as they engaged in conversation about the intersections of race, law, and popular culture. The panelists were Alisa Payne, Producer, Stamped from the Beginning (Netflix), and St. John's Law Professors Philip Lee and Cheryl Wade.
In November 2023, the Center hosted Rest as Resistance: A Two-Day Retreat. On the first day, participants came together for a virtual book club exploring and actualizing Tricia Hersey's New York Times best-selling book, Rest is Resistance, A Manifesto. Day two was an in-person retreat offering an interactive workshop on Rest, Wellness, and Racial Justice. Then, St. John’s Law alumni shared insights on Rest in Practice before the group spent the rest of afternoon enjoying yoga and rest together.
In March 2023, the Center held its first symposium on Racialized Notions of Professionalism. You can view the symposium online at the St. John's Law Scholarship Repository.
For its first-ever event, in September 2022 the Center presented a screening of the feature-length documentary film Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America. In the film, criminal defense/civil rights lawyer Jeffery Robinson chronicles anti-Black racism in the United States, from slavery to the modern myth of a post-racial America. After the screening, members of the Law School community engaged in a virtual conversation with Jefferey Robinson.
Learn More
To learn more about the Center for Race and Law and opportunities to support its mission, please contact Professor Renee Nicole Allen at allenr1@stjohns.edu