2016 Carroll R. Pauley Symposium | October 6-7, 2016
Legal borderlands include spaces crisscrossed by jurisdictional, political, and racial/ethnic boundaries. Other legal borderlands are international boundaries that divide cities and families. In addition to physical spaces, legal borderlands also include philosophical spaces where the legal code is ambiguous or contradictory—those offering “separate, but equal” protections, for instance, or those defining American Indians simultaneously as sovereign nations and as wards of the federal government. Similar contradictory legal borderlands include the many competing codes and jurisdictions regulating criminal law, immigration, mineral rights, reproductive rights, water distribution, and other fundamental concerns in the legal history of the North American West.
Join us in exploring these legal borderlands through a keynote lecture, roundtable discussions, and gallery talk.
Keynote Lecture
“Many Fronteras: Multiple Spaces of Cultural and
Legal Contact, Conflict and Exchange in the Americas, 1600-1900”
Thursday, October 6 at 7pm | Unity Room, Student Union
Evelyn Hu-DeHart is Professor of History, American Studies and Ethnic Studies at Brown University, USA, and Director of the Consortium on Advanced Studies in Cuba (2014-Fall 2015). She also served as Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America and Director of Ethnic Studies, 2002-2014.
From June 2015 to June 2016, she was the Visiting Professor in the History Programme, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.
She received her B.A in Political Science from Stanford University and her PhD in Latin American/Caribbean history from the University of Texas at Austin. She has written and edited 11 books, on three main topics: indigenous peoples on the U.S.-Mexico border; the Chinese diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean; and race relations and minority politics in the U.S. In addition to English, she publishes in Spanish and Chinese (Taiwan and PRC).
Roundtable Discussions
Laying Down the Law:
Critical Legal Histories of the North American West
October 7, 8:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. | Gaughan Center, Student Union
8:30 a.m. Welcome and Opening Comments
8:45 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. Breakout Sessions
A: Legal Borderlands in Native History
- “Alaska Native Courtroom Strategies”
Andrea Geiger, Simon Fraser University - “Oil Exploration in Indian Territory”
Brian Frehner, University of Missouri-Kansas City - “Blackfeet Border Crossings”
Jeff Shepherd, University of Texas-El Paso - Moderator: John Wunder, Emeritus, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
B: California’s Legal Borderlands
- “African American Land Rights in California”
Dana Elizabeth Weiner, Wilfrid Laurier University - “Border Crossing for Abortions”
Alicia Gutierrez-Romine, California State University, San Bernardino - “Reforming Deportees”
Kelly Lytle Hernandez, University of California, Los Angeles - Moderator: James Garza, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
9:45 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. Coffee and Book Reception
10:15 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. Breakout Sessions
C: Legal Borderlands in Latino History
- “Water Distribution & Restriction”
Tom Romero, University of Colorado Denver College of Law - “Mexican Nationals & the US-Mexico Claims Commission”
Allison Powers Useche, Columbia University - “Court-Ordered Desegregation in Denver”
Danielle Olden, University of Utah - Moderator: Neil Foley, Southern Methodist University
D: Legal Borderlands at the Intersections of Race and Gender
- “Mexican-American Sexuality on Trial”
Pablo Mitchell, Oberlin College - “American Indian Habeas Corpus Petitioners & Family Bonds”
Katrina Jagodinsky, University of Nebraska, Lincoln - “Defining & Challenging the Borders of Indian Families: The Indian Child Welfare Act since 1978”
Margaret Jacobs, University of Nebraska, Lincoln - Moderator: Andrew Graybill, Southern Methodist University
11:15 a.m. - 12 p.m. Roundtable Wrap-up & Closing Comments
- Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Brown University
- John Wunder, Emeritus, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Closing Reception and Gallery Talk
October 7, 5 p.m. - 7 p.m. | Great Plains Art Museum
As part of the First Friday Gallery Reception for the Contemporary Indigeneity: Spiritual Borderlands show at the Great Plains Art Museum, Dr. Seaton will offer a guided tour of the juried exhibition of works by American Indian artists exploring the theme of spiritual borderlands and Prof. Jagodinsky will present a brief history of legal efforts to curtail and then protect American Indian religious practices.
5:15 p.m. “Contemporary Indigeneity: Spiritual Borderlands”
Gallery tour by Melynda Seaton, Great Plains Art Museum
6 p.m. “A Brief History of American Religious Freedom & Persecution”
Gallery talk by Katrina Jagodinsky, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Thank You to Our Institutional Sponsors
- Carroll R. Pauley Memorial Fund
- Office of Research and Development
- Department of History
- College of Law
- Institute for Ethnic Studies
- College of Arts and Sciences
- Department of Political Science
- Center for Great Plains Studies
- Modern Languages and Literatures
- Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs
- Women’s and Gender Studies
- Global Studies
- 19th Century Studies
- Department of Anthropology