On March 4, 2022, CUNY Law Review hosted our 25th Anniversary Celebration with an event spotlighting our article, Restorative Justice in Cases of Sexual Harm, by Dr. Alexa Sardina and Dr. Alissa Ackerman. The events as co-moderated by Rev. Dr. Yvette Wilson-Barnes, Associate Dean of Student Affairs and former CUNYLaw Review Editorial Board member, and Brittney Frey, CUNY Law Review Executive Articles Editor. Below are the Opening Remarks given by Dean Wilson-Barnes and a video of the event.
The pandemic left many poor and working-class people in precarious financial positions. The federal government attempted to alleviate some of these financial burdens through Economic Impact Payments (“EIP”) providing people with three stimulus checks in 2020 and 2021. As paltry and unrealistic as these payments were (a maximum of $1,200, $600, and $1,400 for households of one, $2,400 for a married couple, and up to $500 additional for each qualifying child) in supporting the financial loss felt by many, it was at least an act meant to mitigate some of that burden. However, this caused some unforeseen damage to recipients of Supplemental Security Insurance (“SSI”).
By Elizabeth Stillman,1 Associate Professor of Academic Support, Suffolk University Law School
Success in law school, like in any form of higher education, requires that students feel a sense of belonging. Belonging “refers to students’ perceived social support on campus, a feeling or sensation of connectedness, and the experience of mattering or feeling cared about, accepted, respected, valued by, and important to the campus community or others on campus such as faculty, staff, and peers.”
By Summer Blaze Aubrey, Esq. LL.M.1(Cherokee/Blackfeet) & Patricia Handlin, Esq.2
Enbridge, Inc. is a Canadian company that moves oil from the Western Canadian oil tar sands through a pipeline from Alberta, Canada across Minnesota to Superior, Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Superior. Line 3 is new construction that will connect Alberta to Lake Superior along a different route. The pipeline’s route snakes through the wild rice fields of Minnesota, called manoomin or psίᶇ, a sacred food of the Anishinaabe, the Ojibwe and Minnesota Chippewa Tribes, and Dakota Tribes, respectively, and is at the center of their cultural identity, spiritual traditions, and physical and economic well-being. The route crosses the headwaters of the Mississippi River as well as hundreds of other rivers, bodies of water, and wetlands in Minnesota and ends on the shores of Lake Superior just across the Minnesota-Wisconsin border.
We are excited to announce the publication of the 25th Anniversary Volume of CUNY Law Review, Volume 25.1! The full journal is available at CUNY Academic Works. Please see below for individual articles:
In anticipation of the launch of Volume 25, Issue 1 of CUNY Law Review, we are excited to invite you to our 25th Anniversary Event! This event will be a very special occasion as we reflect on prior years since the Law Review’s founding to today. We have a rich agenda planned and many names and articles to lift up.
Current Issue Spotlight: Restorative Justice in Cases of Sexual Harm
We are also thrilled to spotlight our article, Restorative Justice in Cases of Sexual Harm, featured in Volume 25.1 and to invite you to a cutting-edge discussion in the social justice arena with authors Alexa Sardina and Alissa R. Ackerman. This discussion and Q&A will be co-moderated by Dean Yvette Wilson-Barnes and CUNY Law Review Executive Articles Editor, Brittney Frey.
Friday, March 4, 2022 6-7 pm ET CUNY Law Review‘s 25th Anniversary Event will be live streamed. Please RSVP here.
Followed by an Intimate Conversation with the Authors
Current CUNY students and staff are invited to stay after the event for an intimate gathering with the authors. The purpose of this session is to provide a smaller, emotionally safe space for sharing and connection among CUNY community members. This space will not be recorded. Separate RSVP to brittney.frey@live.law.cuny.edu required.
The first issue of Volume 25, featuring Alexa and Alissa’s article, will be available on February 22nd. Stay tuned!
Dr. Alissa Ackerman (left) and Dr. Alexa Sardina, authors of Restorative Justice in Cases of Sexual Harm.
Dr. Alissa R. Ackerman is an Associate Professor in the Division of Politics, Administration and Justice at California State University, Fullerton.She has dedicated her career to studying sex crimes policy and practice, the etiology of sexual offending, the effects of sexual victimization, and restorative justice options for those impacted by sexual harm. She is a “survivor scholar”, in that she integrates her personal experience with sexual violence with her professional expertise as a sex crimes researcher. She has worked with over 500 men and women who have perpetrated acts of sexual harm using vicarious restorative justice. Alissa has written extensively on topics related to sexual violence in blogs and magazine articles and has published over 35 peer-reviewed journal articles. She has authored or edited six books and recently served as co-editor on a special edition of the Journal of Sexual Abuse. Her most recent book, Healing from Sexual Violence: The Case for Vicarious Restorative Justice was published in 2019. Alissa has been an invited speaker in venues across North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. She has given over fifty national and international talks on her sex crimes work including a TEDx Talk in 2018. With Alexa, she hosts the popular podcast, Beyond Fear: The Sex Crimes Podcast.
Dr. Alexa D. Sardina, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at California State University, Sacramento in the Division of Criminal Justice. Her scholarship focuses on female-perpetrated sexual violence, and how restorative processes can be used to address acts of sexual harm. Dr. Sardina has written and presented on research that combines her experience as an expert on sexual violence and rape survivor to encourage the perspective of “survivor scholars”. This brings an important perspective to sex crimes policy, treatment and healing, and aid in communal sexual violence prevention efforts. Dr. Sardina is also a co-founder of Ampersands Restorative Justice, a non-profit organization dedicated to using restorative processes to address sexual harm. She also co-hosts the popular podcast, Beyond Fear: The Sex Crimes Podcast.
Any assessment of the legacy of Guantanamo must start with the tragic events of 9/11. On that day, thousands of Americans were killed in a tragic assault on their everyday lives. Many of us lost loved ones on that day or know people who did. The week before 9/11, I was in the World Trade Center (WTC) with my seven-year-old daughter, bringing her home from one of her early days at child care. Three days before, we were looking at an apartment on John Street, right in the vicinity of the WTC. As we left that building, I thought of how privileged those folks were to be settled in such a nice area of New York. Even today I wonder where those folks are, who wished to sell us an apartment that evening.
We are pleased to publish Volume 25.1, Footnote Forum, Part 2!
In this installment, we present articles written by two currently incarcerated authors who speak to us from their personal experiences. In The Correctional Institute of Nothing, Frank Pruitt writes about his desire for more holistic treatment opportunities in prison, the lack of which he has witnessed for 30 years. Next, in Why Reforms Are not Enough: Justice and Accountability Reimagined, Felix Sitthivong details how abolitionist ideals are vital to many incarcerated people and how reforms fall short of those ideals.
Footnote Forum will publish Part 3 in February 2022. For Part 1, please click here. The full journal is available at CUNY Academic Works. Please see below for individual articles:
We are excited to publish Volume 25.1, Footnote Forum, Part 1. This installment features David Campbell, a former political prisoner, who discusses what “defunding the police” and “reinvesting in communities” could mean if reinvestment took the form of paying incarcerated workers suitable wages. Professor Steve Zeidman, Director of the Defenders Clinic at CUNY School of Law, writes on the notion of whether prosecutors can actually be progressive.
Footnote Forum exists to challenge our assumptions about legal scholarship. For Volume 25.1, we invite readers to consider the value of lived experiences. What can the lives of those directly impacted by the criminal legal system teach us, especially when they have no access to databases normally used for legal research? Does this perspective provide a fuller understanding of the law, and is that valuable for scholarship?
– Natasha Bynum and Colby Williams, Footnote Forum Editors
Footnote Forum is publishing Parts 2 and 3 in December 2021 and February 2022. The full journal is available at CUNY Academic Works. Please see below for individual articles:
Are you interested in adding to the body of legal scholarship? Join published student authors and the CUNY Law Review to learn all about how to publish your own writing as a law student. Please bring your ideas for potential note topics. Panelists will help you workshop your ideas and offer guidance on how to develop your thesis, ways to structure the piece, research tips, and how to get the support you need to write.
Panelists include: Eliza Chung, 4L; Emma Mendelson, 4L; Prof. Andrea McArdle, CUNY Law Review, Faculty Advisor; and Uruj Sheikh, 3L and CUNY Law Review, Editor-in-Chief. Moderated by Yulia Marshak, CUNY Law Review, Notes and Comments Editor.
