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Laura Gómez, vice-dean and professor of law at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law will deliver a lecture titled “Three Centuries of Latinos in the U.S.: The Cyclical Dynamics of Nation-Building, Citizenship, and Legal Personhood” on Oct. 3 at 3 p.m. in Opperman Hall at the Drake University Law School. The event is free and open to the public.
Gómez will discuss the history of the U.S. war with Mexico during the 19th century and how it related to racial issues between Mexican-Americans and European settlers at the time. She will relate this idea to immigration policy and the ways that we perceive the nation’s growing Latino population.
Gómez is an expert on race and the law, law and society, constitutional law, civil procedure, and criminal law. In 2007, she wrote Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race. In this book, Gómez discusses the ways in which law and racial ideology have crossed to develop new racial groups, and ideas about race in the U.S. She also examines the various ways in which race has been studied differently in fields such as social and health sciences.
Gómez is involved in many professional organizations, including the Law and Society Association, where she recently completed her second year as president. She has also worked to produce a special issue on law and racial inequality in the Law and Society Review as associate editor of the journal. In addition, she has held numerous residential fellowships. For more information, contact the Drake Law School at 515-271-2988.