Georgetown Journal of Law & Modern Critical Race Perspectives

 

The Georgetown Journal Law and Modern Critical Race Perspectives (MCRP) is Georgetown’s newest law journal and one of the few law journals in the country dedicated to legal scholarship on race and identity. We were founded in 2007 by an extraordinarily driven group of students who were inspired by their experiences with critical race theorists here at Georgetown and who saw the establishment of a race and identity law journal as a meaningful kind of activism.

MCRP exists both to serve as a scholarly forum for academic and professional individuals who are committed to racial justice and to provide a rigorous editorial experience for students who have the same goal. Our staff includes students of all racial, ethnic, religious, and geographic backgrounds and we are committed to maintaining this crucial diversity. Because we have grown directly out of personal passion, we have many unique qualities that distinguish us from other journals.

We are grounded in critical race theory and our organization is animated by the principles of this movement. Critical race theory examines race and identity with the goal of addressing and transforming the subordinated relationships that have historically defined race in America. Founders of this provocative, intellectually and psychologically sophisticated field include our own Mari Matsuda, Charles Lawrence and Gary Peller. MCRP is committed to providing a platform for critical race theorists, and to incorporating the principle of anti-subordination into our organization itself. What does that mean? Inclusion of all members’ interests in decision-making, open communication at all times between Board members and staff, an atmosphere of concern for the well-being of our members, and humane policies that acknowledge the place journal membership holds among your other priorities as a student and adult. You won’t simply edit footnotes for us as a staff member; in article meetings you will learn about what some of the brightest minds in the world are saying about race, identity, and the law and you will develop your own sensibilities on these issues with sophistication.

We provide unique opportunities for student leadership, community, and publication. By design, MCRP has a relatively small but highly dedicated and motivated membership. This means that any single member has ample opportunity to take on a leadership role, and that we are able to be connected to each other in a way that is simply impossible in a larger, more impersonal organization. We are also committed to the publication of student work as an extension of our principle to hear the “voices from the bottom,” in the words of Mari Matsuda. We intend to dedicate half of each issue to student work, and these notes will be rigorously mentored and edited to give student authors the strongest possible introduction to published scholarship.

We are a haven for students who want to engage the law for progressive and affirmative, rather than cynical, reasons. While all journals require hard work, develop research and editorial skills, and indicate to future employers that you are a responsible and detail-oriented person, MCRP is not an organization driven by the quest for the perfect resume. We truly seek to find and retain members who have a genuine interest in race and identity scholarship because we believe that racial justice is ethically important. Our staff, therefore, has the kind of respectful camaraderie that only comes from a shared sense of purpose. We seek to develop the capacity of each member to think critically and honestly about how their own racial identity engages the law, and we do this by first working hard to insure that members are a part of MCRP because of a bona fide and mature interest in race and identity discourse.

MCRP acceptance relies on a combination of criteria including the case comment, the bluebook test, a personal statement relevant to critical race theory, and grade point average. While grades are considered, they are not at all determinative.

Again, we encourage students of all backgrounds who are interested in race and identity issues to apply and we look forward to another year establishing MCRP as a central institution in the continued vitality of critical race theory.

 

Christina J. Bostick

Editor-in-Chief 2009-10

Georgetown Journal of Law & Modern Critical Race Perspectives

cjb74@law.georgetown.edu