Looks like Duquesne University School of Law will be hosting an all-male symposium next month. Professor Bruce Ledewitz is the symposium chair, according to the school’s publicity. Check out the line-up for the planned program on “The Future of the Establishment Clause in Context: Neutrality, Religion, or Avoidance?” Here are the speakers:
- Bruce Ledewitz, Professor of Law, Duquesne University School of Law
- Christopher Lund, Assistant Professor of Law, Wayne State University Law School
- Samuel J. Levine, Professor of Law, and Director of the Jewish Law Institute, Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center
- Zachary R. Calo, Associate Professor of Law, Valparaiso University School of Law
- Mark C. Rahdert, Charles Klein Professor of Law & Government, Temple University Beasley School of Law
- Richard Albert, Assistant Professor of Law, Boston College Law School
This isn’t my area of scholarship, but I know and like the work of Chris Lund.
Gender equity — let alone equality — won’t be achieved unless each one of us actively pursues it. Looks like diversity was not a priority for the person or people who organized this Duquesne program.
If women were invited to speak, and couldn’t attend, what efforts were made to reach out to other women? How many women were invited to speak? How many men? Oh, well, I suppose it doesn’t matter as long as there was no overt anti-female animus, right? We shouldn’t be doing old-fashioned nose-counting, as long as the “best” scholars were chosen, without regard to gender, right? And after all, the ladies can still attend the symposium.
-Bridget Crawford
As the person responsible for organizing the symposium, I want to say that this criticism is obviously justified. I just want to make sure that neither the institution hosting the symposium—Duquesne Law School—nor the other speakers are subject to blame for this. I will not bother to explain how it happened that we have six male speakers because it would just be excuses. The point is that it did happen and greatly detracts from what is going to be a wonderful symposium. I am glad, although embarrassed, that Bridget Crawford pointed it out publicly, but I want to assure her and the participants on this blog that the matter had already been raised with me at Duquesne.