Symposium
People Move Mountains: Recentering Communities in Legal Work Through Movement Law
Date: Friday, October 9, 2026
Location: University of Minnesota Law School, Walter F. Mondale Hall, Room 25
RSVP: z.umn.edu/movement
Registration & Coffee 8:00 AM-8:45 AM
Opening Remarks 8:45 AM-9:00 AM
- Lola Brown, Editor-in-Chief, Minnesota Law Review, Volume 111
- Kj Kim, Symposium Articles Editor, Minnesota Law Review, Volume 111
Panel #1: The History of Movement Law 9:00 AM-10:30 AM
Moderated by: Liliana Zaragoza, Associate Clinical Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School
Panelists:
- Ahmed White, James E. Jones Jr. Chair, Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School
- Kat Rohn, Executive Director, OutFront Minnesota
- Jocelyn Simonson, Herman Badillo ’54 Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School; co-author of Between Movements and the State, 111 Minn. L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming)
Panel #2: The Future of Movement Law 10:45 AM-12:15 PM
“Where do we go from here?” This is the question on the minds of many lawyers, law students, and community members. How we can use and work within the law to effect positive change within our communities is an evolving debate. This roundtable will begin a dialogue that gets at the heart of why movement law is worth considering.
Moderated by: Amna Akbar, Benjamin N. Berger Professor in Criminal Law, University of Minnesota Law School; co-author of Between Movements and the State, 111 Minn. L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming)
Panelists:
- Amy Cohen, Robert J. Reinstein Chair in Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law
- Sameer Ashar, Clinical Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law; coauthor of Between Movements and the State, 111 Minn. L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming)
- Marbré Stahly-Butts, Associate Professor of Law, CUNY Law School
- Kira Kelley, Part-Time Staff Attorney, Climate Defense Project
Lunch Break and Riesenfield Rare Books Center Open House 12:15 PM-1:30 PM
Box lunches will be available outside Room 25. Feel free to pick one up and eat at your leisure in the common spaces around the school or in Room 25.
Panel #3: Community Self-Defense Coalition 1:30 PM-3:00 PM
Representatives from the Los Angeles-based Community Self-Defense Coalition (Unión del Barrio) are joining us to share their view of the role of law within movements from an organizing perspective. CSDC is an inherently and explicitly community-based group, and an explicitly community-oriented framework of legal thinking is nothing without conversation with such groups. .
Moderated by: Julia Mendoza, Associate Professor of Law, Loyola Law School; author of Resistance Rights, 111 Minn. L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming)
Panelists:
- Mia, Community Self-Defense Coalition Member
- Lupe, Central Committee of Union del Barrio, Women's Commission
- Ndindi Kitonga, Association of Raza Educators-LA, co-chair of praxis
Panel #4: East Phillips Neighborhood Institute--Fighting for Environmental Justice and Reclaiming Local Land 3:15 PM-4:45 PM
Members of the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute, based right here in Minneapolis, are joining us to share wisdom gleaned during their long and continuing battle against environmental racism. Their vision goes beyond discrete legal battles, inviting community members to instead look to long-lasting, people-centered community empowerment.
Moderated by: Al Brady, Principal Counselor, Yale School of the Environment; author of Toward Community Stewardship: Distributed Environmental Governance from Below, 111 Minn. L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming)
Panelists:
- Cassie Holmes, (Niiwin Muck-Wa Ikwe - Four Bears Woman), EPNI Board Member and Community Member
- Jolene Jones, Community Leader
- Abah Mohamed, EPNI Board Member
Closing Remarks 4:45 PM-5:00 PM
Reception 5:00-5:30 PM, Legal Grounds