Program Overview

Law 692/693: Feminist Legal Studies Workshop

Course Description

The Feminist Legal Studies Workshop is designed to enable students to work closely with faculty in analyzing and discussing topics with leading feminist theorists and scholars visiting Queen's Faculty. The workshop is offered for one course credit per term, and students may enroll for one credit in the fall term, or for one credit in the winter term, or for a total of two credits in both terms combined.

Scheduling Details

The workshop speakers will be scheduled for the regular visitor slots on Mondays and Fridays, which run from 1 to 2:30 pm, and one or two additional meetings per term will be scheduled around everyone's class and other commitments.

Evaluation of Student Participation

• Students will attend all the speakers' events (4/term or all 7-8)
• Students will prepare advance reading for the first session of each term and two advance questions for the rest of the speakers in that term
• Students will prepare 1-2 pages of briefing notes after each session (60% of course credit)
• Students will participate in the discussion at the speakers' visit (10% of course credit)
• Students will prepare a short term paper of approximately 10-15 pages on a topic that relates to any one of the speakers' events (30% of course credit)

Fall Term Speakers

• Monday, September 17, 2012: Pamela Cross, Counsel, Luke's Place Legal Clinic, and Consultant, National Association of Women and the Law
  • Topic: Custody and access in cases involving violence against women: In the best interests of whom?
  • Background Reading: Pamela Cross, 'Custody and access in cases involving violence against women: In the best Interests of whom?'
• October 15, 2012: Kim Pate, Executive Director, Canadian Association of E. Frye Associations of Canada
  • Topic: Forgotten Sisters? Why women are Canada's fastest growing prison population; and, why you should care
  • Reading: Kim Pate, 'Why are women Canada's fastest growing prison population; and, why should you care?'
• Monday, October 29, 2012: Patricia Hughes, Executive Director, Law Commission of Ontario
  • Topic: To be announced
  • Reading: To be announced
• Monday, November 12, 2012: Kerri Froc, Adjunct research professor, Carleton School of Canadian Studies, and Ph.D. candidate, Faculty of Law, Queen's University
  • Topic: Seasons of With(l)er? A Reflection on the Supreme Court's Record on Distributive Justice from Gosselin to Today
  • Background Reading: To be announced

Instructors

The course will be taught by Profs. Amani and Lahey.