Law and Organizing Academy

Monday, May 20 to Thursday, May 23
Borden Estate | Hudson Valley, NY
Hosted by:
The Initiative for Community Power at NYU School of Law
The Action Lab
LPE Project
Photo of protester with megaphone and raised fist

Daily Academy Itinerary

Jump to:
Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4

Day 1

|
Monday May 20

Introduction to Law, Organizing, and Political Economy

Photo of protesters marching with raised fists

Day 1 Readings

  • Corinne Blalock, Law & the Critique of Capitalism, SAQ Intro (2022)
  • Angela P. Harris, Amy Kapczynski, Noah Zatz, Where is the Political Economy?, LPE Blog (2021)
  • Amy Kapczynski, David Singh Grewal, & Jedediah Britton-Purdy, How Law Made Neoliberalism, Boston Review (2021)
  • Matt Dimmick, Is Capitalism a Thing?, LPE Blog (2023)
  • George Goehl, Fundamentals of Community Organizing (2023)
  • Make the Road New York Staff Development Manual, Power and Power Analysis

Recommended but not required:

  • Jane F. McAlevey, “The Power to Win is in the Community, Not the Boardroom,” in No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age (2016)

Day 1 Schedule

Monday May 20

10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Arrival & Registration

12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Lunch & Welcome Remarks

John Whitlow & Talia Rothstein

1:30 pm - 1:45 pm

Code of Conduct

Talia Rothstein & Daniela Tagtachian

1:45 pm - 1:50 pm

Walk to Barn

1:50 pm - 3:15 pm

Intro to Organizing

Andrew Friedman & Daniela Tagtachian

3:15 pm - 3:30 pm

Break

3:30 pm - 4:15 pm

Power Mapping

Andrew Friedman & Daniela Tagtachian

4:15 pm - 5:45 pm

Intro to LPE

Amy Kapczynski & Corinne Blalock

5:45 pm - 7:00 pm

Dinner and faculty office hours

Corinne Blalock
John Whitlow

7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Palestine solidarity

Tarek Ismail

8:00 pm - 8:15 pm

Closing remarks + logistics

Talia Rothstein

Day 2

|
Tuesday, May 21

Labor and worker Power

Photo of apartment building with progressive graffiti

Reading/Viewing:

  • Deepak Bhargava and Stephanie Luce, “Tool Seven: Power for Underdogs” and “Tool Nine: New Grooves: Application of the Seven Models,” in Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World (2023)
  • Scott L. Cummings, A Pragmatic Approach to Law and Organizing: A Comment on “The Story of South Ardmore,” Marshall Law Review (2009) – excerpt
  • Karl Klare, Labor Law as Ideology: Toward a New Historiography of Collective
  • Bargaining Law, Industrial Relations Law Journal (1981) - excerpt
  • Stuart Hall, Race, Articulation, and Societies Structured in Dominance (1980) – excerpt
  • Skim: Larry Englestein, SEIU 32BJ’s experience organizing low-wage workers: the role of organizational transformation, commitment and resources.

Recommended but not required:

  • Michael Grinthal, Power With: Practice Models for Social Justice Lawyering, University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change (2011)

Day 2 Schedule

Tuesday, May 21

8:00 am - 9:00 am

Optional yoga session

Talia Rothstein

9:00 am - 10:00 am

Breakfast

11:45 am

Break

Instructors: John Whitlow, CUNY, and Marika Dias, Safety Net Project

10:15 am - 10:45 am

Intersections of LPE & Organizing

Andrew Friedman & Corinne Blalock

10:45 am - 11:50 am

Theories of Change

Andrew Friedman & Daniela Tagtachian

11:50 am - 12:00 pm

Skadden Fellowship Overview

Kathleen Rubenstein

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Lunch and faculty office hours

Andrew Friedman

1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

LPE of Labor

Brishen Rogers

3:00 pm - 3:30 pm

Break

3:30 pm - 5:30 pm

Labor Organizing

Larry Engelstein in conversation with Brishen Rogers

5:30 pm - 6:00 pm

Break

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Structured Reflection

Corinne Blalock

7:00 pm - 7:15 pm

Closing Remarks & Logistics

Talia Rothstein

7:15 pm - 8:15 pm

Dinner & Faculty Office Hours

Brishen Rogers
Daniela Tagtachian

8:15 pm - 9:15 pm

Optional Group Social Activity

Rachel Vogel

Day 3

|
Wednesday, May 22

Abolition, Decarceration, and the Criminal Legal System

Photo of Black Lives Matter protest march

Readings

  • Andrew Manuel Crespo, Why Study Criminal Law? (forthcoming) – excerpt
  • Andrew Manuel Crespo, Defendants, United, Could Strike the State Blindsided, LPE Blog (2023)
  • Andrew Manuel Crespo, No Justice, No Pleas: Subverting Mass Incarceration Through Defendant Collective Action, Fordham Law Review (2022) – excerpt
  • WATCH: Andrew Manuel Crespo, Root and Branch: Lawyers, Movements, and the End of Mass Incarceration, Harvard Law School Faculty Chair Lecture (2024), (15:28 through end)
  • Reformist reforms vs. abolitionist steps in policing, Critical Resistance (2020)
  • Reformist reforms vs. abolitionist steps to end imprisonment, Critical Resistance (2021)
  • Joey Mogul, “Tactical Case Study: The Grassroots Struggle for Chicago Police Torture Survivors,” in Lawyering for Liberation: A Movement Lawyering Toolkit (forthcoming)
  • YOUR CHOICE: Either listen to Mariame Kaba, "Why is this Happening" w/ Chris Hayes... or read Dan Berger, Mariame Kaba and David Stein, What Abolitionists Do, Jacobin (2017)
  • Skim zine, Racial Capitalism and Prison Abolition (2020)
  • Skim VOCAL-NY’s website

Day 3 Schedule

Wednesday, May 22

8:00 am - 9:00 am

Optional hike

Talia Rothstein

9:00 am - 10:00 am

Breakfast

10:00 am - 12:30 pm

LPE & Criminal Legal System: Abolitionist Reforms

Marbré Stahly-Butts & Andrew Crespo

12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Lunch & Faculty Office Hours

Marbré Stahly-Butts
Andrew Crespo

1:30 pm - 3:30 pm

Organizing for Abolition

Jawanza James Williams

3:30 pm - 4:00 pm

Break

4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Student-led session on Palestine solidarity organizing

Rachel Vogel

5:30 pm - 5:45 pm

Break

5:45 pm - 6:45 pm

Structured Reflection

Matt Glover

6:45 pm - 7:00 pm

Closing Remarks & Logistics

Talia Rothstein

7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Dinner and faculty office hours

Jawanza James Williams
Amy Kapczynski

8:00 pm

Optional Film

Rachel Vogel

Day 4

|
Thursday, May 23

Housing Justice

Photo of labor protest with nurse holding a sign that reads "over worked, under valued, exploited"

Reading/Viewing:

  • David Madden and Peter Marcuse, In Defense of Housing: The Politics of Crisis (2016) - read Chapter 1, skim Chapter 2
  • Sara Rankin, The Unavoidable Consequences of Being Human, LPE Blog (2024)
  • Marika Dias, Adams’ unfair homelessness and migrants policy, New York Daily News (2024)
  • Tara Raghuveer and John Washington, The Case for the Tenant Union, Poverty and Race Research Action Council (2023)
  • Skim MRNY's website

Additional resources (not required reading, but a useful resource):

  • NYC Tenant Movement History, Curriculum Resource Packet, Right to Counsel NYC

Day 4 Schedule

Thursday, May 23

9:00 am - 10:00 am

Breakfast

10:00 am - 11:30 am

LPE & Housing Justice

John Whitlow & Marika Días

11:30 am - 1:00 pm

Lunch & Faculty Office Hours

Marika Dias
Jen Hernández

1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Organizing for Housing Justice in NY: Panel

Jen Hernández & Marika Dias, moderated by John Whitlow

2:30 pm - 2:45 pm

Break

2:45 pm - 3:45 pm

Structured Reflection

Daniela Tagtachian

3:45 pm - 4:45 pm

Mapping the ecosystem and Summing-up Interactive Activity

Andrew Friedman & Daniela Tagtachian

4:45 pm - 5:00 pm

Closing Remarks & Logistics

Daniela Tagtachian
Law and Organizing Academy 2024
The Initiative for Community Power at NYU School of Law
The Action Lab
LPE Project
© The Action Lab 2024
Website design by Jessie Katz