Retro Reading: Affirmative Action and Diversity on Campus

RETRO READING: AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND DIVERSITY ON CAMPUS/HNRC 301VH-005 (11310)
THURSDAYS, 3:45-5:00 p.m., SPRING2023

No application is required for this course.

Note: This is a one-credit course. Only register for one hour of course credit.

Questions?  Contact  John Treat . 

So-called “affirmative action” – and its stalking mate, “diversity, equity, and inclusion” – is one of the most pervasive issues in our society today and one of the most misunderstood. The concept has its origins in the notion that all aspects of our society should be open to individuals, without regard to characteristics – like race or ethnicity – that have little to do with who we really are and what our knowledge and skills are. As such, it was originally a quest for fair and open procedures. That appropriate goal has been transformed in ways that obscure the values that should inform this concept and have led to widespread abuses. We will, accordingly, take a close look at what affirmative action was intended to be, what it has become, and what it can appropriately offer in an increasingly diverse society within which lingering economic, political and social issues continue to place artificial barriers in the paths of many individuals.

About Mark Killenbeck

Professor Killenbeck is the Wylie H. Davis Distinguished Professor of Law. He currently teaches courses in the First Amendment, American legal history, and a Supreme Court seminar. He earned his A.B. in English literature from Boston College and both his J.D. and Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska, where he spent 13 years in the University’s Central Administration, ultimately serving as Chief of Staff for the system President.

He is the author of numerous books, chapters, articles and papers, with a special focus on federalism, American constitutional history and affirmative action and diversity. His articles have appeared in major national law journals and many peer-reviewed journals and collections, including the Supreme Court Review, California Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, The Journal of Supreme Court History, and Hastings Law Journal. His book, M’Culloch v. Maryland: Securing a Nation, published in 2006 by the University Press of Kansas, was the first book-length treatment of that important case. His assessment of the Supreme Court’s 2003 affirmative action decisions, Affirmative Action and Diversity: The Beginning of the End? Or the End of the Beginning?, was published in 2004 by the Educational Testing Service in their Policy Information Perspective series. He has also contributed chapters to a number of works, including The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions, the Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Social Consciousness in Legal Decision Making: Psychological Perspectives.

Professor Killenbeck was the first individual in the history of the Law School elected to membership in the American Law Institute while serving on the faculty and is now a life member of the Institute. He has also recently been appointed as Consulting Editor for The Journal of Supreme Court History.