August 24, 2026

Faculty Appearances: Summer Highlights

Law & Society Association Annual Meeting

• Luke Boso presented Right-Wing Grievance and Queer Speech, 57 Seton Hall Law Review ___ (forthcoming 2026), on a panel entitled Gender and Judging.
• Ande Davis presented his latest manuscript, Shoring Up for the Next Fight: State-Level ICWA Laws as Sovereignty Strengthening, on a panel entitled Interrogating the Criminal Legal System: Systemic Challenges, Legal Frameworks, and the Role of Institutional Actors.
• In 2025, Meera Deo was elected to the LSA's Board of Trustees. In that role, she was tasked with co-organizing (with Charlton Copeland) the Early Career Workshop, which selects 50 global scholars from hundreds of applicants who are finishing their PhD or starting in academia and matches them with mentors who meet with them via Zoom in preparation for participation at the conference. She also prepared a full day of programming for Early Career Workshop attendees, inviting guest speakers to share insights on the elevator pitch, publishing, finding balance, and life beyond academia. Additionally, Meera was invited to join a Discussion Group, Presumed Intolerance, with deans and other legal education leaders. Finally, Meera co-organized (with Shruti Rana) a session through the Legal Education CRN entitled Leading through Crisis and Uncertainty, with participation from a university-wide administrator, law school dean, law firm partner, and graduating law student; she spoke there about her recent publication, Resisting Overcompliance, 94 UMKC Law Review 715 (2026).

• Andrew Gilden participated in Roundtable discussion, Critical Sex: A Session on Critical Studies of Law and Sexuality, with Professors Libby Adler, Mary Anne Case, Adrienne Davis, Brenda Dvoskin, Joseph Fischel, and Thomas Kadri.
• Richard Jolly served as Chair and Discussant for a Roundtable entitled New Directions for Studying and Delivering Civil Justice, which brought together contributors to his recently published Research Handbook on Civil Justiceto discuss the current state of civil justice research. Richard also presented Overruling Batson, 112 Cornell L. Rev. ____ (forthcoming 2026), on a panel entitled Jury Selection to Decision-Making: Lay Participation in the Trial Context. Finally, Richard served as Chair and Discussant for a panel entitled Lay Participation in Asia.
• Hila Keren presented Constitutional Opportunism, 104 Denver Law Review ___ (forthcoming 2026), alongside Luke on the Gender and Judging panel. Hila also organized a Roundtable to discuss the unique experience of teaching law and emotions in educational settings that are generally unwelcoming to emotions. Participants included the leading voices in law and emotions scholarship from several continents, and the discussion of effective methods and unique challenges inspired vibrant audience participation.
• Yvette Lindgren convened a Roundtable entitled The Functional Impact of Criminal Abortion Bans, which featured scholars, lawyers, and advocates who explored how abortion criminalization is functioning in the post-Dobbs landscape.

• Jonathan Miller participated in a Roundtable entitled Latin America’s Law and Politics under Trump II: The New Monroe Doctrine? Jonathan’s presentation examined parallels between the Trump Administration’s present approach and U.S. and Argentine conduct at the First Pan American Conference (1889-90).

Luke Boso

• On July 29, University of Virginia School of Law Professor Lawrence Solum “recommended” Luke’s new manuscript, Authoritarian Animus, on his popular Legal Theory Blog.
• On July 2, Luke was the invited guest on The San Francisco Experience Podcast. He sat for a 34-minute interview available here: Birthright Citizenship and Trans Athlete Ban. The Supreme Court’s Decisions. Talking with Professor Luke Boso.
• On June 30, Luke sat for a recorded interview with KABC-TV, answering questions regarding the Court’s decisions in Trump v. Barbara (birthright citizenship) and West Virginia v. B.P.J. (transgender athlete ban).
• On June 17, Luke gave an invited Keynote presentation at the law firm of Best Best & Krieger (organized by its Black & BOLD ERG) for a Juneteenth Luncheon. The talk was entitled Louisiana v. Callais: The Supreme Court’s Latest Attack on the Voting Right Act, and Luke discussed the conservative Court’s disenfranchising precedents regarding the VRA, partisan gerrymandering, the “colorblind” theory of equal protection, and Congress’s enforcement powers under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

Chris Cameron

• On July 17, Chris attended the 43rd Annual Labor & Employment Law Conference (presented by SoCal LERA), where he organized and moderated a panel entitled Promises, Promises: Tricky Issues of Contract Interpretation in Labor Arbitration.
• On May 31, Chris attended the 78th Annual Meeting of Labor and Employment Relations Association (LEREA) in Minneapolis, MN, where he presented on a panel entitled Stepping on Federal Toes? Dealing With New State and Local Labor Law.
• On May 30, Chris attended the 79th Annual Meeting and Educational Conference of National Academy of Arbitrators (“NAA”) in Chicago, IL. The NAA is the preeminent organization of labor and employment arbitrators in the U.S. and Canada, and Chris participated in its annual business meeting as a member of its Board of Governors.
• On April 29, Chris attended the 2026 Beacon of Justice Award Gala at the Los Angeles County Law Library, where he gave a tribute to the Honorable Dean D. Pregerson (Ret.) of the U.S. District Court for Central District of California.

Catherine Carpenter

• On June 27, Catherine attended the 2026 NARSOL Conference in Baltimore, MD. There, she presented The Art of Crafting the Sticky Message, offering six important strategies to help advocacy movements develop powerful messaging.
• At the 2026 NARSOL Conference, Catherine also received its Hawthorne Award (named for Nathaniel Hawthorne who wrote the Scarlett Letter). Catherine was selected for the award due to her large body of scholarly work dedicated to overturning the sex offense registration scheme.

Andrea Freeman

• On July 17, Andrea traveled to Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam to give a presentation about her book, Ruin Their Crops on the Ground, and her other works on food oppression to faculty members of the Amsterdam Centre for World Food Studies, the Amsterdam Sustainability Institute, and the VU Centre for International Collaboration.

• On May 21, Andrea was the invited guest on the Milking It! podcast (UK and Kenya). In this episode, The Magic Milk Machine, hosts JC and Johanna explore the idea of milk as nutritional perfection, and the complex cultural, economic and political factors that have shaped it. Andrea shared her work on food oppression, how commerce has shaped nutritional aid in the U.S., and the impacts of all this on health.

Andrew Gilden

• On July 21, Andrew virtually attended Digital Hollywood: The AI & Entertainment Summit, where he participated in a panel discussion of state-level AI legislation.

KJ Greene and Tiffany Li

• On July 6, both KJ and Tiffany were cited in an Air Mail News piece, The True Face of Avatar?, for their expertise regarding a recent lawsuit alleging that the character of Neytiri in Avatarwas illegally based on the likeness of actress Q’orianka Kilcher.

Hila Keren

• On July 13, Hila attended the 2026 Private Law and Multicultural Identities Workshop in Arona, Italy. While there, Hia mentored junior scholars on their works-in-progress projects. Additionally, Hila was selected to serve as a paper commentator during the Workshop's first day, and she later presented her current work-in-progress, Contract Law, Emotions, and Inequality, and received a commentator's prepared feedback as well as questions and suggestions from other participants. Hila's project illuminates contract law's deep aversion to emotions. It investigates what could and should be learned from the limited recognition of emotional harm in the context of Section 1981, which protects the right to make and enforce contracts including through damages for emotional injuries caused by discriminatory infringement of this right.

Faisal Kutty

• On July 30, Faisal published an Op-Ed in Newsweek: America’s Greatest Trade Advantage Was Never Just Its Economy. Faisal examines the future of North American economic integration and argues that the greatest benefit of agreements such as the USMCA is not simply lower tariffs, but the legal stability and predictability they provide to businesses, investors, and workers. 
• On July 8, Faisal published an Op-Ed in Newsweek: FIFA Caving In to Trump Highlights the Crisis of Institutional Independence. Using FIFA’s controversial decision to lift the automatic suspension of U.S. striker Folarin Balogun as a case study, Faisal examines the broader vulnerability of ostensibly independent institutions to political pressure.
• On June 23, Faisal published an Op-Ed in Newsweek: America at 250: Are We Still Free to Worship Without Fear? Against the backdrop of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. and the deadly attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego, Faisal examines the gap between America’s historic commitment to religious liberty and the reality that houses of worship increasingly require extensive security.
• On May 29, Faisal published an Op-Ed in Newsweek: The Democrats’ Gaza Amnesia Could Cost Them More Than an Election. Faisal examines the Democratic Party’s post-2024 election analysis and its omission of Gaza, arguing that the issue contributed to fractures within the Democratic coalition, protests on college campuses, and alienation among young and other key voters.
• On May 21, Faisal published an Op-Ed in Al Jazeera: Canada Is Using Its Borders to Police Palestine Solidarity. The essay examines the heightened immigration scrutiny faced by international scholars and advocates critical of Israel’s war in Gaza, including interrogations, visa revocations, and denials of entry into Canada.
• On May 20, Faisal appeared on CBC News in an interview with an anchor from The National, Ian Hanomansing, to discuss the deadly attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego and the broader climate of anti-Muslim rhetoric in North America.
• On May 20, Faisal published an Op-Ed in the Toronto Star: The Attack in San Diego Wasn’t Just Another Mass Shooting. It Also Holds a Warning for Canada. Writing in the aftermath of the deadly attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego, Faisal examines the relationship between increasingly normalized anti-Muslim rhetoric and real-world violence. He argues that the attack should be understood within a broader climate in which Muslims are portrayed as alien, dangerous, or incompatible with society, and cautions Canadians against viewing this phenomenon as uniquely American.
• On May 13, Faisal published a special report in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs: The Smurfification of Geopolitics: What a Children’s Classic Reveals About U.S. Power. Using the fictional relationship between Gargamel and the Smurfs as a lens for examining asymmetrical power, Faisal explores how U.S. power is exercised and justified in international affairs, including in relation to Palestinians, Iranians, Lebanese, Cubans, and Venezuelans.
• On May 13, Faisal participated as an invited discussant in the Scholars of Excellence Workshop: Islamophobia, Antisemitism and the Struggle for Recognition, hosted by the Global Migration Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University. The symposium featured University of Bristol Professor Tariq Modood, a leading scholar of multiculturalism, who presented his recent work examining Islamophobia and antisemitism. Faisal joined University of Toronto scholars Joe Carens, Abigail Bakan, and Sheryl Nestel as discussants responding to Modood’s presentation and exploring the relationship between Islamophobia, antisemitism, multiculturalism, political expression, and the struggle for equal recognition in increasingly polarized democracies.

Bob Lutz

• On July 29, Bob attended the 2026 ABA Annual Conference in Chicago, IL. There, he concluded his service as a member of the 40,000-member Senior Lawyers Division Council, and he assumed the position of Honorary Council Member.
• On June 11, Bob published an essay in the ABA's The Voice of Experience: The Declaration and America’s Historical and Cultural Disdain For Kings.
• This summer, Bob became the President-Elect of the Half Century Trojans, which is a 15,000-member USC Alumni Association for those who graded from USC 50+ yrs ago. Bob graduated from USC in 1964 with a BA before earning his JD from UC Berkeley in 1971.

Jonathan Miller

• On May 13, Jonathan virtually attended an event entitled La Constitución en Occidente: El legado constitucional de Néstor Sagues (translated as The Constitution in the West: The Constitutional Contribution of Nestor Sagues), held at the Universidad Austral in Buenos Aires. Jonathan spoke about Professor Nestor Sagues’ legacy as a constitutional law scholar who offered attorneys a practical approach toward constitutional challenges during Argentina’s democratic transition in the 1980s and 1990s.
• In April, a new Constitutional Law casebook, written by Professor Oscar Flores and professors who have worked with him, was published by The National University of Tucuman in Tucuman, Argentina. Jonathan wrote the text for the casebook’s back cover, endorsing the book and its attempt to spread the case method for teaching Constitutional Law.

Jyoti Nanda

• On May 3, Jyoti attended the Bellow Scholar Convening at the AALS Clinical Conference in Portland, OR. Along with her fellow scholars, Jyoti presented the first in a series of papers drawing on a dataset she is developing regarding pregnant incarcerated minors. This initial paper focuses on the distinctive intersectional methodology and data framework guiding her research. Jyoti's broader goal is to develop a research blueprint that encourages clinical faculty to incorporate data collection and analysis into their client-advocacy, strengthening both individual representation and broader systemic reform.

Orly Ravid

• On June 11, Orly presented at the Israeli Co-Production Market event, Alternative Models for Film Financing — Challenges and Opportunities, in Tel Aviv, Israel. There, Orly met with filmmakers and presented in a "Ted Talk" style regarding film financing, distribution, and legal issues in today's marketplace.
• On June 4, Orly spoke on a panel celebrating the Entertainment & the Arts Legal Clinic client film, Mission Joy, in connection with the 25th anniversary of the Tribeca Film Festival.
• On May 7, Orly mentored documentary filmmakers regarding entertainment legal issues as part of the Film Independent's annual Documentary Story Lab.

Della Thompson-Bell

• On July 15, Della attended the ALWD Innovative Teaching Workshop at the LWI Biennial Conference at the University of Minnesota Law School. There, she presented Beyond Facts and Rules: Making Inference Visible in CREAC, explaining a structured lesson that teaches 1Ls to explicitly incorporate inferences as a distinct sentence type within the Rule Application section of CREAC. Building on familiar non-legal examples and legal hypotheticals, the lesson shows how inferences connect client facts to the conclusion, strengthening analytical clarity by adding an explicit inference step, demonstrated through side-by-side models, to improve students’ ability to link facts to legal outcomes.

Tracy Turner

• On July 13, Tracy attended the annual Lavender Law Conference / Queer Legal Scholarship Symposium in Chicago, IL, where she presented her work-in-progress, Flipping the Script: RBG’s "Celebration" of Differences Quote and Gender Diversity. The manuscript analyzes misapplications of a line from a seminal sex discrimination decision that has been leveraged to support anti-trans policies, as well as the doctrinal flaws that have enabled this tactic.

Rachel VanLandingham

• Earlier this year, Rachel VanLandingham was named the Ansell-Crowder Chair in Military Justice Reform by the National Institute of Military Justice (NIMJ). This recognition places her among the nation's leading authorities on military justice, national security law, and the law of war.
• From July 23-31, Rachel participated in a law of war accountability conference in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine (in-person) along with Ukrainian military legal advisors and international experts, hosted by intergovernmental think tank DCAF-Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance. Rachel’s presentations focused on operationalizing combatant immunity through strict legal compliance and rigorous record keeping.

• In June, Rachel joined Alicia Menendez on MS Now to discuss Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s new mandatory testosterone testing for military members (including women!). 
• On June 23-24, following her participation in a national security law conference in Washington, DC, Rachel sat down in-person with Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) to discuss her military law advocacy work. This meeting was followed by a series of others with key staffers for lawmakers (including Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) regarding military law related legislation. 
• On May 28, Rachel sat down with Jake Tapper live on The Lead to discuss the lack of accountability by the U.S. military for the February missile strike that killed over 120 Iranian school girls and their teachers.
• This spring, Rachel was interviewed by numerous print journalists, giving rise to quotes in both national and international media, such as in this appearance in The Hill regarding the Pentagon chief’s attacks against a sitting senator over depleted munition stockpiles. Rachel also provided extensive background education to numerous outlets on a series of issues, including military justice, such as The Guardian in this late June report about a failed sexual assault trial against a U.S. service member for an alleged assault (Rachel is also quoted).
• Rachel has published a series of Op-Eds this year (averaging two a month, but only one in June because she deserved a break):
  • On July 21, Rachel published an Op-Ed in MS Now: The U.S. military’s escalating strikes in Iran may be legal. That doesn’t make them justified. In this piece, Rachel analyzes the reported U.S. target expansion in Iran to civilian infrastructure such as bridges, roads, railway junctions, and power plants. 
  • On June 10, Rachel published an Op-Ed in MS Now: Thanks to Pete Hegseth, some U.S. service members lost full freedom of religion. Here, Rachel analyzes Secretary of Defense Hegseth’s elimination of a raft of Pentagon-recognized religions from official listings, and she discusses what this means for warfighters and the burden it places on their First Amendment right to free exercise.
  • On May 25, Rachel published a Memorial Day themed Op-Ed in MS Now: The Pentagon can honor our military dead this Memorial Day by committing to fight the right way. Rachel discusses the impact of the war against Iran on service members, highlighting moral injury sustained by reckless targeting errors like the one that killed over 120 Iranian girls at the onset of the war.
  • On May 17, Rachel published an Op-Ed in MS Now: Pete Hegseth thinks the lawmakers who know the most about the military should have the least to say. Here, Rachel details Secretary of Defense Hegseth’s claim against Senator Mark Kelly regarding allegations that Kelly violated classification laws when questioning Pentagon officials in open hearings.
  • On April 22, Rachel published an Op-Ed in MS Now: Pete Hegseth wants ‘maximum lethality.’ But he just ensured a sicker, weaker military. In this strong critique, Rachel discusses the roll-back of the mandatory flu vaccine by Secretary of Defense Hegseth (which has since been partially rescinded after a death and hundreds diagnosed with the flu during basic training earlier this summer).

Bryce Woolley

• On June 24, Bryce attended Playposium 2026 at the University of Exeter Business School, in Exeter, England. The Playposium is an international consortium of educators in higher education across disciplines who incorporate play into their pedagogy. Bryce presented: Learning Your Learning History Through Storytelling.