Center for Racial and Economic Justice

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The Center for Racial and Economic Justice (CREJ) works to advance equity through legal education, scholarship and collaboration. CREJ enriches UC Law SF by providing our intellectual community with access to nationally renowned thinkers on issues of racial and economic inequality and the space to critically examine how the law reinforces subordination.

CREJ’s three primary avenues for achieving its mission are:

  1. Reframing conventional doctrinal course instruction by situating cases and jurisprudence within a historical and structural context of racism and inequality;
  2. Convening scholars and practitioners to disseminate information and facilitate dialogue on issues of racial and economic injustice; and
  3. Coordinating course offerings and other educational opportunities that center critical perspectives of race, identity, and inequity through which UC Law SF students develop a deeper understanding of the complexities of racism and subordination.

CREJ Annual Report 2022-2023

Meet the CREJ Faculty and Staff:

Headshot of Alina Ball

Alina Ball

Professor of Law, Bion M. Gregory Chair in Business Law, and Co-Director of the Center for Racial and Economic Justice
View Alina Ball’s Profile

Headshot of Thalia González

Thalia González

Professor of Law and Harry & Lillian Hastings Research Chair, Co-Director of the Center for Racial and Economic Justice
View Thalia González’s Profile

Headshot of Shauna Marshall

Shauna Marshall

The Honorable Raymond L. Sullivan Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Center on Racial and Economic Justice
View Shauna Marshall’s Profile

Headshot of Prithika Balakrishnan

Prithika Balakrishnan

C. Keith Wingate Visiting Assistant Professor
View Prithika Balakrishnan’s Profile

Headshot of Jerry López

Jerry López

Center for Racial and Economic Justice Wiley Manuel Visiting Professor and Scholar
View Jerry López’s Profile

Headshot of Ming H. Chen

Ming H. Chen

Professor and Harry & Lillian Hastings Research Chair, Director of the Center on Race, Immigration, Citizenship and Equality
View Ming H. Chen’s Profile

Headshot of Karen Musalo

Karen Musalo

Professor and Chair in International Law, Director of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies
View Karen Musalo’s Profile

Headshot of Christine Natoli

Christine Natoli

Kazan McClain Partners’ Foundation Clinical Teaching Fellow
View Christine Natoli’s Profile

Headshot of Reuel Schiller

Reuel Schiller

The Honorable Roger J. Traynor Chair and Professor of Law
View Reuel Schiller’s Profile

Current Student Researchers and Associates:

Vivyana Prado

Vivyana Prado is a 2L at UC Law SF interested in land and energy justice. As an undergraduate student at UCLA, she studied Environmental Science and Chicana/o Studies. She is a board member of the UC Environmental Law Association and the Indigenous Native American Law Student Association at UC Law SF. She is also co-leading an Alternative Spring Break trip through the Pro Bono center to provide immigration legal aid at the U.S./Mexico border in 2024. She has interned with the Natural Resources Defense Council (San Francisco) and the Sustainable Economies Law Center (Oakland). Prior to law school, she worked as a Program Associate at the Energy Foundation, a philanthropic environmental non-profit, and as a tutor at the Latino Resource Organization in West Los Angeles. As a CREJ fellow, she assists with social media coordination and programming.

 

 

 

Megan Wilhelm

 Megan Wilhelm is a current 3L at UC Law SF. During her time at UCLSF, Megan has worked with Students for Immigrant Rights, the Disability Rights Association, and the Black Law Students Association. Over the summer, Megan had the opportunity to work with Public Advocates Inc. as an Arc of Justice Summer Fellow where she worked on housing justice and equitable policy analysis. Megan now works as a research fellow for CREJ and continues to research and design equitable legal education plans for future law students.

Program Information

The following are UC Law SF courses that explicitly center issues of race and subordination in their examination of the law and legal systems.  This list is not exhaustive.  We encourage current students to consult the Course Catalog for additional offerings related to issues of racial and economic justice.

Upcoming Events

No upcoming events.

Past Events

Wiley Manuel Lecture featuring Professor Scott Cummings

Join us for a conversation with Professor Scott Cummings exploring the role of law in reimagining what economic justice should look like in American cities profoundly divided by race and class. Our understanding of how law has shaped structural economic and racial inequality at the local level—and how city residents mobilize law as a tool to challenge this inequality—informs our ability to redesign law to address fundamental problems of housing insecurity and labor precarity, while ensuring the sustained and meaningful participation of communities in development and planning decisions that fundamentally affect their lives. This inquiry requires us to also deepen our substantive and practical understanding of the role of movement lawyers in economic and racial justice efforts.

The Racial Muslim

The Center for Racial and Economic Justice and UC Law Constitutional Law Quarterly welcome Professor of Law and Chancellor’s Social Justice Scholar, Sahar Aziz, in conversation with Professor Evelyn Rangel-Medina, to discuss her new book, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom, which explores the racialization of religion in the United States. Muslims have experienced a long history of exclusion and discrimination in the United States. For example, Muslims were formally ineligible for U.S. citizenship, which was historically reserved only for “free white persons.” Professor Aziz examines how religious freedom has always been racially circumscribed in the United States and explains why that context is significant to understanding contemporary events such as Trump’s “Muslim Ban” executive order.

Connecting the Threads that Bind: Contextualizing Legalized Violence Against Asian Americans


This one-day, virtual conference investigates systemic and historic causes of anti-AAPI violence, provides frameworks for understanding the continued subordination of AAPI and BIPOC communities, and discusses AAPI-led advocacy addressing the root causes of violence and disenfranchisement.  The conference features prominent scholars, critical race theorists, poets, activists, and movement lawyers from across the country working on issues related to AAPI violence, including Michael Omi, Lorraine Bannai, Shelley Lee, Khaled Beydoun, Vinay Harpalani, Carol Izumi, Deepa Iyer, Bill Tamayo, Eunice Lee, Stephen Lee, Ming Hsu Chen, Jason Wu, Cynthia Choi, Eddy Zheng, Zohra Ahmed, Michael Chang, Russell Leong, Julian Aguon, and Frank Wu.

From Prop 209 to Prop 16: Historical, Legal and Activist Perspectives on Affirmative Action


Californians have endured a statewide ban on race- and gender-based affirmative action policies since the passage of Proposition 209, which is widely recognized for its devastating impact on advancing racial justice in labor and education. In November 2020, Proposition 16 would have restored affirmative action in CA. This panel discusses the legacies of Proposition 209 and the promise Proposition 16 provided.

Racial Health Disparities: Economic Injustice as an Underlying Condition of Covid


COVID-19 has deeply affected communities of color, who are disproportionately essential workers and whose labor conditions and economic status constrain their ability to protect themselves and their families during the pandemic. Compounding these acute challenges are disproportionate rates of underlying health conditions which are connected to unequal social conditions over the lifespan, including poverty and racism. Panelists describe the evidence base linking economic and racial inequality to health inequity, the ways in which COVID compounds those longstanding inequities, and the role of law as both a positive and negative force in addressing them.

Racial Health Disparities: Police Violence as an Underlying Health Condition

The UCSF/UC Law SF Consortium along with the UC Law SF Center for Racial and Economic Justice are pleased to announce that part two of our Health Equity Webinar Series is now available as a recording. The event, “Racial Health Disparities: Police Violence as an Underlying Health Condition,” took place on Wednesday, January 13th via zoom, as a moderated panel discussion. Attendee questions are integrated into the discussion.

Black UC Law SF (Hastings) Speaks

Black UC Law SF (Hastings) Speaks is a project of the UC Law SF Center for Racial and Economic Justice (CREJ). The series is modeled after the StoryCorps podcasts and aims to preserve and present, with dignity, authentic stories of Black experiences within the UC Law SF community.

Listen