Generating New Ideas and Preparing New Scholars for Critical Race Scholarship

The CRS Program is committed to preparing the next generation of Critical Race Studies scholars. To this end, the Program has established a formal track to support students who are interested in exploring a future in legal academia and related disciplines. This track leverages the existing structure of the CRS Specialization by providing a customized plan of action for each of the three years in Law School and supplementing the formal curriculum with opportunities for intellectual engagement outside of the classroom. (The law school has also created a CRS Law Teaching Fellowship for its alums.) 

The current recommended structure for CRS students includes:

First Year 

  • Participate in the CRS 1L Workshop – Ongoing
  • Participate in the CRS Law Review Write-On Workshops – Feb/Mar 
  • Participate in the Law Review Write On Competition – First week of summer Break 
  • Attend the CRS Symposium – Spring Semester
  • Summer: Consider research assistance for CRS faculty member

Second Year 

  • Enroll in both core courses, Critical Race Theory and Civil Rights
  • Enroll in CRT Seminar/Advanced CRT Seminar (functionally identical courses, offered in alternating years)
  • Consider research assistance for CRS faculty member

Third Year 

  • Enroll in CRT Seminar/Advanced CRT Seminar (functionally identical courses, offered in alternating years)
  • Submit abstract for consideration to present at select Academic Conferences, such as CRS Symposium, Law and Society, or your own identified conference
  • Submit final CRS writing requirement paper for publication in a selected academic journal
  • Present paper before peers and CRT faculty in CRT workshops or CRT colloquia

CRS Students are encouraged to continue participating in the intellectual life of the program and the Law School. CRS students serve as editorial staff of student journals, produce publishable works as part of independent study writing projects, and learn how to produce legal research by serving as Research Assistants to UCLA Law Professors. The CRS future law professors track is intended to enhance, not supplant, these activities.

If you are thinking about a career as a law professor, please make sure to express your interest to the current Program Director and Faculty Director.  We will give you the sort of practical and honest assessment, advice, and mentoring that is atypical in American Legal education.