Here’s a reminder of a not-to-be missed lecture next week: The Presidential Forum on Diversity will present Lani Guinier, civil rights attorney and Harvard law professor, Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.
“Professor Guinier has a presence and message that captures the audience as she shares the challenges and triumphs of her academic and political career,” says Gretchel Hathaway Tyson, senior director of Campus Diversity and Affirmative Action, who is urging faculty members to encourage students to attend.
“In addition, she shares insights for individual growth while emphasizing the intellectual significance of diverse perspectives in academia.”
In advance of her appearance on campus, Guinier was interviewed live on WAMC’s “The Roundtable” this morning, discussing an Obama presidency and her plans for her Union visit.
Guinier’s campus talk will touch on her memoir, “Lift Every Voice: Turning a Civil Rights Setback into a New Vision of Social Justice.” She wrote the book after President Bill Clinton nominated her to head the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice in 1993. Her name, however, was withdrawn without a confirmation hearing when her views on proportional democratic representation and voter participation stirred controversy.
Before becoming Harvard Law School’s first black woman with a tenured professorship in 1998, Guinier spent 10 years as a tenured professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. During the 1980s, she was head of the voting rights project at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and she served in the Civil Rights Division during the Carter administration.
In addition to "Lift Every Voice," Guinier is the author of “Becoming Gentlemen: Women, Law School and Institutional Change,” based on research she conducted at Penn. She and her co-authors found that women were not graduating with top honors – despite the fact that women and men came to school with virtually identical credentials.
Guinier is a graduate of Radcliffe College of Harvard University and Yale Law School.
Wednesday’s event is free and open to the public.