New centre at UBC to advance feminist legal research and scholarship

UBC will play a major role in advancing feminist legal scholarship
in B.C. with the creation of a new Centre for Feminist Legal Studies.

The centre will focus on interdisciplinary research and teaching
in the areas of feminist legal theory and analysis, including equality,
human rights, family law, criminal law, taxation and mental health
law.

“This centre will consolidate and build on existing strengths in
feminist legal studies at UBC,” says Susan Boyd, chair of Feminist
Legal Studies. “It will highlight the ways in which legal research,
teaching, law reform and litigation have been affected in recent
years by the emerging body of feminist legal scholarship.

“We hope that establishment of the centre will enhance our ability
to attract research funding and support from the community.”

As holder of the Chair in Feminist Legal Studies, Boyd will be
involved in initiating the activities of the centre.

Other research areas under consideration include the study of the
history of law and legal institutions as tools of social control
and as avenues of social change, and the intersection of race, class,
disability and sexual orientation with gender in legal arenas.

Based in the Faculty of Law, members of the academic centre will
work with colleagues in various disciplines at UBC and in other
institutions, and with representatives of community organizations.

The appointment of a director for the new centre is expected to
be made by May 1997.

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