Examines LatCrit's emergence as a scholarly and activist community
within and beyond the US legal academy
Emerging from the US legal academy in 1995, LatCrit theory is a genre of
critical outsider jurisprudence--a vital hub of contemporary scholarship
that includes Feminist Legal Theory and Critical Race Theory, among
other critical schools of legal knowledge. Its basic goals have been:
(1) to develop a critical, activist, and inter-disciplinary discourse on
law and society affecting Latinas/os/x, and (2) to foster both the
development of coalitional theory and practice as well as the
accessibility of this knowledge to agents of social and legal
transformative change.
This slim volume tells the story of LatCrit's growth and influence as a
scholarly and activist community. Francisco Valdes and Steven W. Bender
offer a living example of how critical outsider academics can organize
long-term collective action, both in law and society, that will help
those similarly inclined to better organize themselves. Part roadmap,
part historical record, and part a path forward, LatCrit: From
Critical Legal Theory to Academic Activismshows that with coalition,
collaboration, and community, social transformation can take root.