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UMaine Law School Lecture Examines Race, American Law and Victim Compensation

October 26, 2007

Professor Jennifer B. Wriggins, the Sumner T. Bernstein Professor of Law, at the University of Maine School of Law give the 2007 USM Trustee Professor Lecture, “Race, American Law, and the Value of Injury:  Historical Foundations, Contemporary Implications.”  This free lecture will take place 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Thursday, November 8 in the University Events Room of the Glickman Family Library, Portland.  Lunch will be provided.  Please RSVP to Jenna Adley by calling 207-780-4344 or e-mail jadley@usm.maine.edu by November 1.

Wriggins is an influential pioneer in analyzing the role of race and racism in U.S. law.  She is a nationally known scholar whose articles on race, gender, tort law, insurance law, and family law are frequently reprinted and cited in articles, books, and on blogs.  Her lecture will analyze the impacts of race and racism on the way the U.S. legal system compensates victims of physical injuries, from the early twentieth century to the present.  The racial aspects of this important area of law, broadly known as tort law, are only beginning to be studied.  Focusing on lawsuits brought by African-Americans, Wriggins’ lecture will challenge assumptions about race and access to justice, and offer a historically informed perspective on modern-day calls for ‘tort reform.’

A graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School, she is currently writing a book with Professor Martha Chamallas of Ohio State University titled “The Measure of Injury: Race, Gender, and the Law of Torts” (NYU Press, forthcoming 2008).  She joined the faculty of the University of  Maine School of Law in 1996 and teaches torts, family law, constitutional law, and insurance law.  She clerked for Federal District Judge Edward T. Gignoux and practiced law for eleven years before becoming a law professor.  She has been a visiting professor at Boston University and Harvard Law School.  More information about Professor Wriggins’ work can be found on her faculty profile page on the website of the University of Maine School of Law,
http://mainelaw.maine.edu/faculty-details.aspx?facultyID=6.

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