By Laura Wolford

Photos of Dr. Khiara M. Bridges

Dr. Khiara M. Bridges, professor at UC Berkeley School of Law was keynote lecturer at the 2021 Newcomb Institute Postdoctoral Fellows Symposium

On February 5th, Newcomb Institute hosted the 2021 Postdoctoral Fellows Symposium. This day-long symposium provided an opportunity for the three Newcomb Institute postdoctoral fellows to engage with distinguished scholars in their field around their work. The research conducted by the postdoctoral fellows centered on the importance of intersectionality in shaping discussions of law, governance, civil rights, and everyday movements. The symposium’s culminating event was a keynote lecture by Dr. Khiara M. Bridges, professor of law at UC Berkeley School of Law, titled “Imagining an Ethnography of the Reproductive Lives of Class-Privileged People of Color: Race, Class, Gender, and Prenatal Care.”

National Science Foundation-funded postdoctoral fellow Dr. Annie McGlynn-Wright discussed her paper, “Inspecting the Expecting: How Race, Pregnancy, and Poverty Shaped the WIC Program,” with Dr. Andrea Freeman, Professor of Law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and keynote speaker Dr. Khiara M. Bridges.

Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Tiffany Gonzalez discussed her paper, “Chicanas and Political Leadership,” with Dr. Maria Cotera, Associate Professor in the Mexican American and Latino Studies Department at the University of Texas, and Dr. Max Krochmal, A.M. Pate, Jr., Associate Professor of History and at Texas Christian University.

Lastly, postdoctoral fellow Dr. Jess Issacharoff discussed her paper, “Domestic Terror: Assata Shakur and the Birth of Rikers Women’s Facility” with journalist and author Victoria Law and Michelle Jones, activist and doctoral student in the American Studies program at New York University.

McGlynn-Wright reflected on the timeliness of this year’s event explaining, “The symposium was an excellent opportunity to engage in pressing conversations about race, gender, and the law with preeminent scholars in the field and with colleagues from Tulane and beyond.”