As Black History Month continues, Renee Nicole Allen, associate professor of legal writing and director of the Center for Race and Law at St. John’s University School of Law, will lead a seminar next Thursday, Feb. 21 titled “Contextualizing the Triggering Event: Colonial White Supremacy, Anti-Blackness and Black Lives Matter in Italy and the United States.” Prof. Desirée LeClercq, industrial and labor relations, will be moderating the event.
Allen will discuss the history of anti-Blackness in the United States and Italy through a critical comparative framework. The analysis will focus on her research that supports the idea that white supremacy is engrained in the colonization and law in both nations.
Allen will also analyze how the United States and Italy structured their legal systems to bolster anti-Black sentiments by emphasizing genetic and phenotypic characteristics. The final part of the seminar will focus on Black liberation movements throughout history, Black diasporas in both countries and contemporary Black movements around the world.
Allen is a first-generation attorney and received her J.D. from the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Before becoming a law professor, she practiced family law in Atlanta. Her recent scholarship explores structural racism and misogyny in legal academia.
Her scholarship has been published in several journals, including the William and Mary Journal of Race, Gender and Social Justice, UCLA Law Review and Rutgers Law Review. She has presented her research at several national conferences, including the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning and the National People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference.
The lecture will be held from 12:15 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. Thursday on Zoom.
Julia Senzon is a member of the Class of 2026 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She is the editor-in-chief of the 143rd Editorial Board and was the managing editor of the 142nd Editorial Board. She can be reached at jsenzon@cornellsun.com or 908-672-3047.
