Inaugural Morelli Colloquy brings together interdisciplinary perspectives

The Nathaniel R. Jones Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice at Cincinnati Law will host the inaugural Morelli Colloquy, Belonging and Difference: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, on April 8, 2021. The colloquy is being co-organized with Dr. Sunnie Rucker-Chang, director of European Studies in UC’s College of Arts and Sciences.

The colloquy will bring together scholars in the fields of Black studies, communications, film studies and media, sociology, history, and law to explore the processes by which belonging and difference emerge as phenomena, are instrumentalized and given meaning by way of category definition.

Invited speakers in both law and the humanities and social sciences will discuss their work on a wide array of topics, including immigration; policing; Indigenous law and policy; the history of the queer, Black, migrant, and refugee movements of the 1980s Netherlands and their relevance to the present day; scientific racism; and colonialism. Asking each of the speakers to frame these issues in terms of belonging and difference, these interdisciplinary conversations will open up new ways of thinking about how to address issues of trenchant inequality and inequity. 

The Colloquy will open with a keynote “conversation” — to establish an ethos of talking with instead of talking at others — between historian Tiffany N. Florvil, PhD, University of New Mexico College of Arts & Sciences, and professor Natsu Taylor Saito, Georgia State University College of Law.

Two panels will follow, each made up of a mix of law and humanities/social science scholars. You can view the full lineup of panelists on the registration page.

At the end of the day, Rucker-Chang, PhD, and Cincinnati Law professor Yolanda Vázquez will bookend the program with a summary conversation that, hopefully, also includes discussion of possible next steps. 

The colloquy is presented by the Nathaniel R. Jones Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice, in collaboration with the European Studies Program in the University of Cincinnati’s College of Arts and Sciences Department of German Studies. The planning committee is made up of Emily Houh, Gustavus Henry Wald Professor of the Law and Contracts and co-director and co-founder, Nathaniel R. Jones Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice; Kristin Kalsem, Charles Hartsock Professor of Law and co-director and co-founder, Nathaniel R. Jones Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice; and Sunnie Rucker-Chang, assistant professor of Slavic, director of European Studies, University of Cincinnati College of Arts & Sciences.

Alumnus Bill Morelli, A&S ’74, JD ’78, created the Bill Morelli endowment fund for the Nathaniel R. Jones Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice in 2020. The endowment provides funding for this event and will be used to establish a practitioner-in-residence program, allowing the College of Law to host a social justice advocate or innovator to teach courses on race, gender and social justice.

Renamed in 2019 after Judge Nathaniel Jones in honor of his career as a champion for justice, the Jones Center trains and cultivates scholars, leaders, and activists committed to social change. The center began as the nation’s first joint JD/MA program in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. Our students have helped survivors of domestic abuse, advocated for greater LGBTQ rights in Ohio, and worked in national feminist legal organizations such as the National Women’s Law Center, Equality Now, and Legal Momentum. 

The UC Law faculty who are affiliated with the Jones Center conduct research and work to combat harassment, violence against women and economic inequalities that target our most vulnerable neighbors. The center has built an international reputation by bridging theory and practice, forging relationships with local, national and global communities and preparing students to take the lead in advancing justice.