BRISTOL – Close to three years after introducing a new required course for law students on racial issues and the U.S. law, Roger Williams University School of Law is launching an institute for programs to better train new attorneys on perspectives of system inequities and to improve racial justice.
The law school’s Institute for Race and Law will officially be launched March 21 at an event at the Graduate Providence in downtown. The new institute expands on the course titled “Race & the Foundations of American Law”
that RWU School of Law introduced in 2021. RWU School of Law Dean Gregory W. Bowman told Providence Business News at the time the course – to be taken in a student's second year – gives students some grounding in the historical perspective of the structures of the law and systemic inequities that existed even before the U.S. was founded.
RWU School of Law needed a place on campus to house all its programs on how to address racial inequities in law, which led to the institute’s creation, Bowman told PBN. The institute, Bowman says, will also provide space for the law school to collaborate with other organizations and state government on addressing racial injustice and inequities.
“We want the institute to be a place of thought, teaching, scholarship and action,” Bowman said.
RWU School of Law also brought aboard new staff for the institute. Along with three new faculty, Bernard Freamon, a law professor at the school, will be the institute’s new executive director, Bowman said. Nicole Dyszlewski, RWU School of Law’s director of special programs and academic affairs, will be the institute’s new associate director.
Bowman said RWU School of Law is currently working on implementing new programing for the institute to overlap and augment work currently being done by the school. The institute will launch clinics on affordable housing issues, help with minority business entities and on climate change, Bowman said.
Additional courses will also come online, where students can take them as electives toward their general degree, Bowman said. He couldn’t confirm how many students he hopes the institute can attract but said “the sky’s the limit” based on students’ interest in various research projects and pro bono work.
“There will be a lot of opportunities for students [to be involved],” Bowman said. “I think most of our students will be engaged one way or another.”
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
