FRS 003 — Sec. 002 — (1 unit) — CRN 26037 — M 3:10 - 4:00 pm — 2064 King Hall
Latinos and Latinas and the Law

Instructor: Kevin Johnson, School of Law

Description: This seminar will analyze legal issues of particular relevance to the Latino community in the United States, including civil rights, immigration, affirmative action, language regulation, and national and transnational identity issues. Introductory readings for each class will be compiled to introduce the subject to freshman undergraduates. The seminar will introduce students to the various issues facing the Latina/o community in the United States. It will offer basic information in legal history as well as current issues facing the Latina/o community in the United States.

Format: Class will be conducted as a seminar, with a premium placed on class discussion. Weekly readings will be pulled from Kevin R. Johnson, How Did You Get to Be Mexican? A White/Brown Man's Search for Identity (1999). The emphasis of the class will be class discussion. The instructor will lead class discussion. Beginning in the second week of class, students will be required to do a one-page typed paper offering their opinion on the reading for the week. A final paper of five typed pages in length will be required at the end of the class. Grading: Grading will be based class participation (20%) on the eight weekly (1-2 page) papers (60% total) with 20% allocated to the final paper. Regular class attendance and participation in class discussion is mandatory.

About the Instructor: Kevin R. Johnson is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law and Chicana/o Studies at the University of California at Davis. Johnson has published extensively on international migration, immigration law and policy, and civil rights, with a particular focus on Latinas and Latinos. He has published Mixed Race America and the Law: A Reader (NYU Press, 2002) and a Reader on Race, Civil Rights, and the Law A Multiracial Approach (Carolina Academic Press, 2001). Johnson’s first book How Did You Get to Be Mexican? A White/Brown Man’s Search for Identity (Temple University Press) was published in 1999 and was nominated for the 2000 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. A graduate of Harvard Law School, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review, Johnson earned his undergraduate degree in economics from UC Berkeley. He grew up in the Los Angeles area. After graduation from law school, Johnson clerked for the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Los Angeles and worked as an attorney at a San Francisco law firm. He has taught at UC Davis since 1989.