Introduction
Diversity issues are not restricted to specialized courses like Civil Rights, Feminist Jurisprudence, or Disability Law & Policy. They are present throughout the curriculum, including in foundational courses like Contracts and Civil Procedure. To assist students and faculty who want to explore these areas, the Dean's Advisory Committee on Diversity (now the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee) requested a list of readings to highlight how issues of race, class, sex, and sexuality can arise in traditional first-year courses.
Separate pages in this guide address different courses, such as Civil Procedure and Torts. See the navigation bar on the left.
Many articles will be available in several places
- Papers on SSRN can generally be downloaded free. See our guide.
- HeinOnline is available to all UW users.
- Nexis Uni is licensed for all UW users. It has the same law reviews that are in Lexis Advance.
- Bloomberg Law, Lexis Advance, and Westlaw are licensed for UW Law users only.
None of these lists is comprehensive. If you would like to suggest another reading, please send a note to whisner [at] uw.edu.
Photo: course reserve shelves, showing textbooks for variety of courses
Related Guides
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Critical Perspectives Reading List: 1L Curriculum [Seattle University]List curated by 1L faculty.
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Law Deans Antiracist Clearinghouse [AALS]
Ideas for how law schools can lead in anti-racism, resources (articles, books, videos, music), and law school statements. -
Racial Justice Resources (Georgia State Univ. Coll. of Law)Includes general anti-racism materials (articles, books, multi-media) and material related to 1L courses.
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Recommended Reads for EquityRecommendations from UW students, faculty, and staff for books about equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Books with Overviews
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Critical Race Theory: A Primer by Publication Date: 2018Also available as an ebook here and in West Academic Study Aids -
Feminist Legal Theory: A Primer, 2d Ed. by Publication Date: 2016 -
Introduction to Feminist Legal Theory, 3d ed. by Publication Date: 2012 -
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A Perilous Path: Talking Race, Inequality, and the Law by Publication Date: 2018From the publisher: "This blisteringly candid discussion of the American dilemma in the age of Trump brings together the head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the former attorney general of the United States, a bestselling author and death penalty lawyer, and a star professor for an honest conversation the country desperately needs to hear."
Collections of Readings
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After Identity by
Publication Date: 1995 -
The Ashgate Research Companion to Feminist Legal Theory by Publication Date: 2013Also available as ebook -
Carving out a Humanity: Race, Rights, Redemption by Call Number: (online)Publication Date: 2020"Carving Out a Humanity gathers some of our country's brightest progressive legal stars in a volume that illuminates the facets of the law that have continued to perpetuate racial inequality and to confound our nation at the start of a new millennium. Originally delivered as Derrick Bell Lectures in a series at NYU School of Law, begun in 1995 and running up through 2019, Carving Out a Humanity offers an unprecedented array of today's most creative and brilliant thinking on race and the law." - publisher.
Contributions by Charles Ogletree, Charles Lawrence, Patricia J. Williams, Richard Delgado, Lani Guinier, Anita Allen, Mari Matsuda, Cheryl I. Harris, Kendall Thomas, Derrick Bell, John Calmore, Robert A. Williams, Paul Butler, Emma Coleman Jordan, Devon W. Carbado, Ian Haney López, Annette Gordon-Reed, William Carter Jr., Stephen Bright, Sherrilyn Ifill, Michelle Alexander, Theodore M. Shaw, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Kenneth W. Mack -
Critical Race Feminism, 2d ed. by Publication Date: 2003 -
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Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement by Publication Date: 1996Note: This is only available in print. Click to catalog record to see table of contents: you can look up the articles in the journals where they originally appeared. -
Critical White Studies: Looking Behind the Mirror by Publication Date: 1997Part IV is "Whiteness: Law's Role."
Also available as ebook. -
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Discussions on Disability Law and Policy by Publication Date: 2014 -
Feminist and Queer Legal Theory: Intimate Encounters, Uncomfortable Conversations by Publication Date: 2009 -
Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court by Publication Date: 2016 -
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Feminist Legal Theory - v. 69 of Studies in Law, Politics, and Society by
Publication Date: 2016 -
Feminist Legal Theory: An Anti-Essentialist Reader by Publication Date: 2003 -
Gender Justice and the Law: Theoretical Practices of Intersectional Identity by Call Number: (online)Publication Date: 2020 -
Global Critical Race Feminism: An International Reader by Publication Date: 2000 -
Law and Class in America: Trends Since the Cold War by Publication Date: 2006 -
Masculinities and the Law: A Multidimensional Approach by Publication Date: 2012Also available as ebook -
The Oxford Handbook of Feminism and Law in the United States by Publication Date: 2021-Ebook.
"This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. . . . [T]he table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site." June 2021. -
The Politics of Law: A Progressive Critique by Publication Date: 1998 -
Research Handbook on Critical Legal Theory by Call Number: onlinePublication Date: 2019Available online through Elgar -
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Transcending the Boundaries of Law: Generations of Feminism and Legal Theory by Publication Date: 2010 -
Vulnerable Populations and Transformative Law Teaching by Call Number: Gallagher Law Library Classified Stacks (KF336 .V85 2011)Publication Date: 2011
Law Stories
The Law Stories series provides context for and commentary on cases (and other developments) often studied in law school courses. Most contributors are law professors.
The series is available online to UW Law students via the West Academic Study Aids package.
Volumes specifically addressing topics related to diversity are listed here. But almost any volume—whether Corporate Law Stories or Civil Procedure Stories—will have at least some chapters that explore how the law affects race, sex, class, sexual identity, or religion.
Interviews
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Legal Intellectuals in Conversation: Reflections on the Construction of Contemporary American Legal Theory by Publication Date: 2012Also available as ebook.
Other Books
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Black and Blue: How African Americans Judge the U.S. Legal System by Call Number: onlinePublication Date: 2018Also available in Oxford University Press.
Annotated Bibliographies
Annette Demers, Cultural Competence and the Legal Profession: An Annotated Bibliography of Materials Published between 2000 and 2011, 39 Int'l J. Legal Info. 22 (2011), HeinOnline.