College of Law

Awards

• 2011 Goldman Prize for Excellence in Teaching
• 2004 Goldman Prize for Excellence in Teaching

November 2011

Verna’s article, Reform or Retrenchment?: Single-Sex Education and the Construction of Race and Gender, 2004 Wis. L. Rev. 15, was cited in David S. Cohen, The Stubborn Persistence Of Sex Segregation, 20 Colum. J. Gender & L. 51 (2011).

October 2011

The Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice, which Verna, Emily Houh, and Kristin Kalsem direct, co-sponsored with the Urban Morgan Institute the Butler Human Rights Lecture, which was given by Professor Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2011). 

The Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice hosted Jacqueline A. Berrien, Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, at its fall luncheon event on October 28 at the Netherland Hilton in downtown Cincinnati.  Read more in Sherry English, EEOC Chair Jacqueline Berrien to Speak on Employment Opportunities in the 21st Century, UC News, October 20, 2011.

Verna, a member of this year’s faculty appointments committee, attended the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) recruiting conference in Washington, D.C., on October 14 & 15.

Summer 2011

In June, Verna traveled to San Francisco to participate in the 2011 Law and Society Association (LSA) Annual Meeting, where she served on and chaired several panels.

Verna’s article, Reform or Retrenchment?: Single-Sex Education and the Construction of Race and Gender,  2004 Wis. L. Rev. 15, was cited in Andrew J. McCreary, Public Single-Sex K-12 Education: The Renewal Of Sex-Based Policy By Post-Race Politics, 1986-2006, 40 J.L. & Educ. 461 (2011).

Verna is shown talking with Pete Rose at the Ohio Justice & Policy Center’s Inaugural Spring Gala on Saturday, May 14 at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. 

May 2011

Verna was mentioned in University of Cincinnati College of Law Holds 178th Hooding Ceremony, Targeted News Service, May 10, 2011. 

Verna was awarded the 2011 Goldman Prize for Excellence in Teaching, the College’s highest teaching honor.  Congratulations, Verna!

April 2011

Verna received the Goldman Prize for Excellence in Teaching at the 2011 Senior Banquet.  In announcing the prize, Dean Lou Bilionis stated, in part, “A master of her field, never shy, and always interested in students’ opinions, Professor Williams asks students to confront highly sensitive issues—such as race, gender, or class—and to consider the interplay between them and the law. On a daily basis, these issues are rarely mentioned in public without some apprehension; however, in all of Professor Williams’ courses, she brings them to the forefront of class discussions without pause, leading her classes through difficult questions and challenges students to test not only their own beliefs, but also the beliefs of others, including her own. … Possibly her greatest skill as an educator is her ability to help students see beyond a legal opinion’s text and understand the personal story behind a case. Professor Williams challenges students to analyze laws not simply from a theoretical perspective, but also from the perspective of the people affected by them. She is truly gifted at teaching students to place themselves in the shoes of others. And regardless of whether an empathetic jurist is a good idea or not, training students to relate to a client or understand an opponent’s perspective is an indispensible skill that will serve her students for years to come.”  Congratulations, Verna!

Verna was invited by the Minnesota Black Women Lawyers Network, based in Minneapolis, to deliver keynote remarks at the 10th Anniversary Lena O. Smith Luncheon.  The Luncheon annually celebrates the achievements of Black women lawyers, and awards a scholarship to an outstanding Black female third-year law student.  Verna’s keynote address was entitled, Walking the Line: When a Lawyer is First Lady. 

The Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice (RGSJ Center), which Verna directs with Professors Emily Houh and Kristin Kalsem, presented several programs in April:

• ·  A panel discussion, co-sponsored with APALSA, BLSA, and LLSA, titled The UC Diversity Plan Task Force: Mission, Research, and Findings, featuring Terry Kershaw, Head of UC’s Department of Africana Studies; and Debra Merchant, Director, Academic Excellence and Support Services; and moderated by Joel Chanvisanuruk, Director of Academic Success for the College of Law’s Center for Professional Development.  The panelists, of UC’s Diversity Task Force, discussed UC’s commitment to excellence is a diverse community of students, scholars, and staff and how it is measuring up to its ambitious vision, most recently articulated in UC2019.  Specifically, they addressed the Task Force’s mission, research, and findings regarding students, faculty, staff, and environment, as well proposed initiatives to increase diversity at UC.  

• ·  A presentation titled, Sexual Rights and the Global Governance of Intimacy, featuring Amy Lind, Mary Ellen Heintz Associate Professor, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.  Dr. Lind’s presentation described her ongoing work on struggles for sexual rights and gender justice in global perspective, with an emphasis on feminist and sexual rights movements in the global South.

March 2011

The Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice (RGSJ Center), which Verna directs with Professors Emily Houh and Kristin Kalsem, presented several programs in March:

·  The 2011 Judge-in-Residence lecture by the Honorable Wilhelmina Wright,  “Lawyers as Public Servants: Facing Today’s  Challenges with Ingenuity Inspired by a Commitment to Service”  - co-sponsored with the Judge-in-Residence program, run by Professor Marianna Bettman; 

·  A panel discussion titled, “Return to the Model Minority Myth,” featuring College alumnae Andrea Yang (‘o8), Jenn Dye (’10), and Professor Emily Houh, and moderated by ProfessorJosh Chambers-Letson of the English and Comparative Literature Department – co-sponsored with the College’s APALSA chapter; 

·  As part of the RGSJ Center’s “Coffee Corner” series, a presentation by N. Jeremi Duru, a professor at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law, on his new book Advancing the Ball: Race, Reformation, and the Quest for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL (2011); and 

·  A Coffee Corner presentation by Adrian Parr, a professor in UC’s Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and its School of Architecture and Interior Design at DAAP, on “Sustainability Movements: The Intersection of Environmental and Social Justice.”

February 2011

The College’s Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice—which Verna directs with Emily Houh and Kristin Kalsem—sponsored a “Coffee Corner” discussion with Wayne McKenzie, Director of the Prosecution and Justice Project with the Vera Institute of Justice (based in New York).  The Center also sponsored a panel discussion on the causes, consequences, and cures of racial and ethnic disproportionality in conviction and incarceration rates, featuring Mr. McKenzie, Steve Tolbert (Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office), and Janaya Trotter (Ritter & Randolph, LLC), and moderated by Janet Moore, Visiting Assistant Professor at the College of Law.

January 2011

The College of Law’s Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice—which Verna co-directs with Kristin Kalsem and Emily Houh—hosted the first in a series of new “Coffee Corner” discussion sessions, to which a diverse range of local and national activists, leaders, and authors have been invited to meet and talk informally with College of Law students about their social justice work.  At the first Coffee Corner in January, Barb Rinto and Kim Fulbright, Director and Program Coordinator, respectively, of the University of Cincinnati’s Women’s Center, spoke to students and community members about the work they’ve been doing since 1978 to “meet the needs and interests of UC’s women and LGBTQ students, staff and faculty.”  Several more Coffee Corner sessions have been planned and are in the works for the remainder of the Spring 2011 term.

December 2010

Verna and Kristin Kalsem’s article, Social Justice Feminism, 18 UCLA Women's L.J. 131 (2010) is now in print.

October 2010

The College’s new Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice, of which Verna is co-director (along with Kristin Kalsem and Emily Houh), celebrated its official launch with a luncheon event in downtown Cincinnati, where Tina Tchen, Executive Director of the White House Council on Women and Girls and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, delivered keynote remarks to over 200 attendees.

Verna attended the annual Association of American Law Schools Faculty Recruitment Conference in Washington, D.C. 

Two of Verna’s works were cited:

• Complaint, Davis v. Monroe County School District, 526 U.S. 629, 119 S.Ct. 1661 (1999) (Civ. A. No. 94-140-4-MAC (WDO)) (with Marcia D. Greenberger & Barbara A. Burr), in Ronna Greff Schneider, Education Law: First Amendment, Due Process, and Discrimination Litigation (West Group, 2010 Supp.), and
• Reform or Retrenchment?: Single-Sex Education and the Construction of Race and Gender,  2004 Wis. L. Rev. 15, in Justine T. Rousseau, ed.,  Eleventh Annual Review Of Gender and Sexuality Law: Educational Law Chapter: Single-Sex Education, 11 Geo. J. Gender & L. 315 (2010), and in Ronna Greff Schneider, Education Law: First Amendment, Due Process, and Discrimination Litigation (West Group, 2010 Supp.).

September 2010

Verna’s article, Social Justice Feminism, U of Cincinnati Public Law Research Paper No. 08-14, co-authored with Kristin Kalsem, was cited in Martha Chamallas, Rhetoric & Relevance: An Investigation into the Present and Future of Feminist Legal Theory, 17 Mich. J. Gender & L. 157 (2010).  Social Justice Feminism is forthcoming in the UCLA Women’s Law Journal in 2010.

Summer 2010

Two of Verna’s publications were cited:

• The First (Black) Lady, 86 Denv. U. L. Rev. 833  (2009), in Ann C. McGinley, Ricci v. Destefano: A Masculinities Theory Analysis, 33 Harv. J. L. & Gender 581 (2010); and in Angela Onwuachi-Willig & Osamudia James, The Declining Significance of Presidential Races?, 72 Law & Contemp. Probs. 89 (2010); and
• Reform or Retrenchment?: Single-Sex Education and the Construction of Race and Gender, 2004 Wis. L. Rev. 15 , in David S. Cohen, Keeping Men “Men” and Women Down: Sex Segregation, Anti-essentialism, and Masculinity, 33 Harv. J. L. & Gender 509 (2010); in Juliet A. Williams, Learning Differences: Sex-role Stereotyping in Single-sex Public Education, 33 Harv. J. L. & Gender 555 (2010); and in Kim Shayo Buchanan, Sexuality & Gender Law: Assessing the Field, Envisioning the Future, 57 UCLA L. Rev. 1149 (2010).

Verna was featured in Singleton's Mission: Justice for All, Cincinnati Enquirer, July 5, 2010.

In July, Verna, along with Professor Emily Houh, met with a delegation of business women from Kyrgyzstan to discuss issues relating to women in the legal and business professions.  The delegation visited the College as part of their participation in the Open World Program of the Greater Cincinnati World Affairs Council.

In August, Verna spoke at the 2010 Midwest Regional Bankruptcy Seminar on the topic of “The First (Black) Lady.”

June 2010

Verna participated as a reader in the Author Meets Readers session on Title IX and the Women's Sports Revolution by Deborah Brake (Pittsburgh) at the Law and Society Association’s Annual Meeting in Chicago.

April 2010

Verna, Emily Houh, and Kristin Kalsem spoke at UCLA on a panel on Intersectionality in Action at the 4th Annual Critical Race Studies Symposium on Intersectionality.

March 2010

UC President Williams appointed Verna to serve on the Provostal Search Committee. Verna served on a panel of local practitioners (Paul DeMarco, Pierre Bergeron, Jim Helmer), all of whom have argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, as part of The Judge-in-Residence program, moderated by Marianna Bettman.

Verna’s article, Reform or Retrenchment?: Single-Sex Education and the Construction of Race and Gender, 2004 Wis. L. Rev. 15, was cited in Frank Rudy Cooper, “Who's the Man?”: Masculinities Studies, Terry Stops, and Police Training, 18 Colum. J. Gender & L. 671 (2009).

October 2009

Verna's article, Reform or Retrenchment: Single Sex Education and the Construction of Race and Gender, 2004 Wis. L. Rev. 15, was included in the new book by Maurice R. Dyson (Thomas Jefferson) & Daniel B. Weddle (Missouri-Kansas City), Our Promise: Achieving Educational Equality for America's Children (Carolina Academic Press, 2009).

Summer 2009

Verna’s article, Reform or Retrenchment?: Single-Sex Education and the Construction of Race and Gender, 2004 Wis. L. Rev. 15, was cited in Christina M. Calce, Tenth Annual Review of Gender and Sexuality Law: Education Law Chapter: Single-sex Education, 10 Geo. J. Gender & L. 573 (2009).

June 2009

Verna published The First (Black) Lady, 86 Denv. U. L. Rev. 833 (2009).

Verna’s article, Private Choices, Public Consequences: Public Education Reform and Feminist Legal Theory, 12 Wm. & Mary J. Women & L. 563 (2006), was cited in Mitchell F. Crusto, Unconscious Classism: Entity Equality for Sole Proprietors, 11 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 215 (2009).

May 2009

Verna was named to a bipartisan committee that will recommend the U.S. attorney and federal marshal for Northern Ohio.

April 2009

Verna’s article, Reform or Retrenchment?: Single-Sex Education and the Construction of Race and Gender, 2004 Wis. L. Rev. 15, was cited in David S. Cohen, No Boy Left Behind? Single-sex Education and the Essentialist Myth of Masculinity, 84 Ind. L.J. 135 (2009).

Verna was quoted in Brown Recommends to President Obama Appointment of Steve Dettelbach for U.S. Attorney and Reappointment of Peter Elliot for U.S. Marshal, Lexis States News Service, March 2, 2009.

March 2009

Two of Verna’s articles were cited:

• The Heart of the Game: Putting Race and Educational Equity at the Center of Title IX, 7 Va. Sports & Ent. L.J. 21 (2008) (with Deborah Bake), in Jared R. Churchill, Elizabeth R. Gersh, & Jennifer Ward, Coaches Corner: Law Review, 38 J.L. & Educ. 215 (2009).
• Reform or Retrenchment?: Single-Sex Education and the Construction of Race and Gender, 2004 Wisc. L. Rev. 15, in Dawinder S. Sidhu, Are Blue and Pink the New Brown? The Permissibility of Sex-segregated Education as Affirmative Action, 17 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 579 (2008).

February 2009

Verna was featured in Memories Will Last a Lifetime, Cincinnati Enquirer, Jan. 21, 2009, at 7A; and Obama Friend Plans to Be Ally Outside Administration, Cincinnati Enquirer, Jan. 4, 2009, at 1B. She was quoted in Ohio to Get New U.S. Attorneys, Marshals Panels to Recommend Names for Obama to Nominate, Cincinnati Enquirer, Jan. 16, 2009.

January 2009

Verna attended her first meeting of the Ms. Foundation board, of which she is a new member.

December 2008

Verna posted The Heart of the Game: Putting Race and Educational Equity at the Center of Title IX, 7 Va Sports & Ent. L.J. 21 (2008), on SSRN. She was quoted in Striking a Balance While Becoming a First Family, Nov. 6, 2008, at A1.

November 2008

The Freedom Center Journal, which is advised by Verna, Kristin Kalsem, and Emily Houh, held a discussion of Pamela Bridgewater's article, Connectedness and Closeted Questions: The Use of History in Developing Feminist Legal Theory, dealing with reproductive rights and the intersection of race, class, and gender

Summer 2008

Verna presented Title IX and Social Justice Feminism as part of the 12th Annual UC Faculty Summer Scholarship Series.

Verna represented Barack Obama on a panel discussion of the presidential election at a Town Hall Meeting as part of the 20th Annual Midwest Regional Black Family Reunion Celebration, Look How Far We've Come ... By Faith.

Verna's article, Social Justice Feminism, 19 UCLA Women's L.J. ___ (2008) (with Kristin Kalsem), was cited in Megan Ryan, ed., Comments from the Spring 2007 Harvard Journal of Law & Gender Conference, 31 Harv. J. L. & Gender 378 (2008).

May 2008

Verna's article, Social Justice Feminism (with Kristin Kalsem) was accepted for publication in the UCLA Women's Law Journal and featured on Larry Solum's Legal Theory Blog.

Verna was quoted in Holding Down the Obama Family Fort `Grandma' Makes the Race Possible, Boston Globe, Mar. 30, 2008.

April 2008

Verna completed a new article, Social Justice Feminism (with Kristin Kalsem). She and Kristin presented Social Justice Feminism: Words, Movements, Theory and Practice at the 11th Annual Meeting Association for the Study of Law, Culture & the Humanities at Boalt Hall.

Verna made two presentations at Harvard Law School:

• Race and Gender in the Presidential Election, at the Winter Luncheon.
• Career Transitions: Moving from Private to Public, Public to Private, and Public to Academia, at A Celebration of Public Interest.

March 2008

Verna's remarks at the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender Spring Conference: Changing Social Norms? Title IX and Legal Activism (Apr. 13, 2007) were discussed in Lucy M. Stark, Exposing Hostile Environments for Female Graduate Students in Academic Science Laboratories: The McDonnell Douglas Burden-shifting Framework as a Paradigm for Analyzing the Women in Science Problem, 31 Harv. J. L. & Gender 101 (2008). Her article, Reform or Retrenchment?: Single-Sex Education and the Construction of Race and Gender, 2004 Wisc. L. Rev. 15 (2004), was cited in Elizabeth S. Kisthardt, Singling Them Out: The Influence of the Boy Crisis on the New Title IX Regulations, 22 Wis. Women's L.J. 313 (2007).

Verna was quoted in:

• Black Ohio Dems Appear to Be Moving to Obama, Cincinnati Enquirer, Feb. 5, 2008, at 1A.
• Michelle Obama Solidifies Her Role in the Election, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 11, 2008, at 1A.
• Michele Obama Thrives in Campaign Trenches, New York Times, Feb. 14, 2008, at A1
• Obama's Edge: His Wife, Michelle, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Feb. 14, 2008.

February 2008

Verna attended the AALS Annual Meeting in New York City, where she spoke on the Section on Minority Groups panel on E-racing the Color Line in Sports (to be published in the Virginia Sports and Entertainment Law Journal).

Verna's article, Reform or Retrenchment?: Single-Sex Education and the Construction of Race and Gender, 2004 Wis. L. Rev. 15, was cited in Rebecca A. Kiselewich, In Defense of the 2006 Title IX Regulations for Single-sex Public Education: How Separate Can Be Equal, 49 B.C. L. Rev. 217 (2008).

December 2007

Verna spoke at a Coffee Talk with students sponsored by the Public Interest Law Group.

November 2007

Verna, Emily Houh and Kristin Kalsem organized and hosted the inaugural symposium of the Freedom Center Journal, Reconstructions: Historical Consciousness and Critical Transformation. Speakers included:

• Pamela Bridgewater (American)
• Alfred Brophy (Alabama)
• Courtney Cahill (Roger Williams)
• James Campbell (Brown)
• Christine Zuni Cruz (New Mexico)
• Adrienne Davis (North Carolina)
• Katherine Franke (Columbia)
• Angela Harris (UC-Berkeley)
• Kevin Noble Mallard (Syracuse)
• Margaret Montoya (New Mexico)
• Natsu Taylor Saito (Georgia State)

Verna participated on a panel, On Pedagogy: Best Practices for Critical Teaching, with Bob Chang (Loyola-L.A.), Roberto Corrado (Denver), and Bryan Adamson (Seattle) at the Junior Faculty Development Workshop held in connection with the Twelfth Annual LatCrit Conference in Miami, FL.

Verna participated in the Alumni Teach-In Day, as Laura Martin (Class of 2003), Behnke, Martin & Schulte (Dayton, OH), taught Verna's Juvenile Law Class.

Summer 2007

Verna presented Social Justice Feminism (with Kristin Kalsem) as part of the 11th Annual UC Faculty Summer Scholarship Series.

June 2007

Verna was quoted in a front-page New York Times story, Michelle Obama Adds New Role to Balancing Act, N.Y. Times, May 18, 2007, at A1.

May 2007

Verna presented Title IX and Social Justice as part of a panel discussion on Title IX and Sexual Harassment/Sexual Assault at the Changing Social Norms? Title IX and Legal Activism Conference sponsored by the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender.

Verna presented Title IX and Gender Norms as part of a panel discussion on Sticky Cultural Norms: The Transformative Potential of the Title IX sponsored by the Hofstra Institute for the Study of Gender, Law and Policy.

March 2007

Verna participated with Mark Godsey, Ann Hubbard, and Suja Thomas in a moot oral argument in preparation for Pierre Bergeron's argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in Winkelman v. Parma City School District.

February 2007

Verna was featured in the latest issue of UC Magazine. She was quoted in The Woman Behind Obama, Chicago Sun-Times, Jan. 21, 2007.

Verna attended the AALS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. Her articles, Private Choices, Public Consequences: Public Education Reform and Feminist Legal Theory, 12 Wm. & Mary J. Women & L. 563 (2006), and Reading, Writing, and Reparations: Systemic Reform of Public Schools as a Matter of Justice, 11 Mich. J. Race & L. 419 (2006), were cited in Law Review Digests, 36 J.L. & Educ. 113 (2007).

Please see Faculty News Archives for earlier issues.