Law students create new journal of race, gender, social policy

A group of 15 law students at the Maurer School of Law have proposed a new law journal concerning race, gender and social policy. If approved, the journal would join three other Maurer School of Law journals.

Each of the school’s journals is used as a learning tool for second- and third-year law students. Through the use of the journals, students are able to participate in the organization, publication and editing of legal research.

If the proposed journal is approved, law students would have more choices and would be able to choose the journal they would like to work on with a more particular interest in mind.

“I thought that the proposed journal would provide an opportunity for IU law students with a similar interest to have a chance to contribute to legal scholarship, while simultaneously furthering their interests,” said Jalil Dozier, law student and founder of the new journal.

Dozier said the idea for the journal came from his own interest in the way that legal and social policy issues impact racial minorities, women and transgender persons.
Another reason the group decided to write the journal was its observation that other top law schools had specialty journals devoted to topics such as race, gender and social policy but the Maurer Law School did not.

“The students who worked on putting together the journal’s proposal were troubled by the fact that our law school, with a progressive tradition, has no journal specifically devoted to issues of race and gender, especially considering the significant amount of faculty scholarship produced on these topics and the number of student organizations dedicated to these progressive ideals,” said law student Rick Chasney, who is also working on the journal.

The journal will also actively seek submissions from professors and scholars of any academic field.

“To truly contribute to the study of race, gender and social policy, it is important not to view these issues from one perspective, but to instead research the issues collectively, as the entire Indiana University or academic community,” Chasney said.

The students who proposed the journal see the issues that are going to be debated as necessary to not only the students at IU now but also students in the future.

“The interests among the students should be there, because the issues are there,” law professor Kevin Brown said. “I suspect these issues are going to be even more important but also very different for the generation coming up.”

The journal is currently under review by a faculty committee so it can make recommendations to the entire faculty as to whether the journal should be approved.