Perspectives Reading Group
CLEAR co-sponsors a reading group every academic year. The Perspectives Reading Group serves as an informal setting where students and professors can examine issues of concern or importance to marginalized groups, focusing on a particular issue or demographic group at each meeting.
Past Featured Works
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The UCI Center on Law, Equality, and Race (CLEAR) hosts a Perspectives reading group discussion of Devon Carbado's book, Unreasonable: Black Lives, Police Power, and the... 
The UCI Center on Law, Equality and Race (CLEAR) welcomes Professor Sahar Aziz to discuss The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom (UC Press, 2021). Comments...
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Sherally Munshi, Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown Law, will discuss her forthcoming chapter, “Immigration,” in The Oxford Handbook of Law and Humanities. Abstract: In... 
This session will discuss Jeanne Theoharis's book, A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History (Beacon Press, 2018). Publisher's...
This session will discuss Khaled A. Beydoun's book, American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear (UC Press, 2019). Publisher's introduction: The term...
This session will discuss Jennifer L. Eberhardt's book, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do (Penguin Random House,...
This session will discuss Ibram X. Kendi's book, How to Be an Antiracist (One World, 2019). Publisher's introduction: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the National Book...
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Fall 2018
September
Film Screening: The Chinese Exclusion Act directed by Ric Burns and Li-Shin Yu
Discussion led by Professor Kaaryn Gustafson and Professor Judy Wu
October
Book Discussion: City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771–1965 by Kelly Lytle HernándezBook Discussion: Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Umoja Noble
November
Book Discussion: Alien Capital: Asian Racialization and the Logic of Settler Colonial Capitalism by Iyko Day and The War Against Chinese Restaurants by Gabriel J. Chin & John Ormonde -
Spring 2018
January
Book Discussion: We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Discussion led by Professor Kaaryn Gustafson
Book Discussion: Chokehold: Policing Black Men by Paul Butler
Discussion led by Professor Mario Barnes
February
Author Meets Readers: Porous Borders: Multiracial Migrations and the Law in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands by Julian Lim -
Fall 2017
September
Book Discussion: Evicted by Matthew Desmond
Discussion led by Professor Mario Barnes -
Spring 2017
January
Author Meets Readers: The Enigma of Diversity:The Language of Race and the Limits of Racial Justice by Ellen Berrey
Discussion led by Professor Mario BarnesFebruary
Book Discussion: The Legacy of Conquest by Patricia Nelson Limerick
Discussion led by Professor Carrie Menkel-MeadowMarch
Book Discussion: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
Discussion led by Professor Funmi ArewaBook Discussion: Failed Promises by David M. Konisky
Discussion led by Professor Suma PeesapatiApril
Book Discussion: The Two Faces of American Freedom by Aziz Rana
Discussion led by Professor Seth Davis -
Fall 2016
September
Cultural Appropriation and Language Sensitivity
Facilitated by BLSA, LLSA, NALSA, and APALSA board members with short readings from each.October
Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics by Marie Gottschalk
Discussion led by Professor Jennifer Chacón.November
Forked by Saru Jayaraman
Discussion led by Professor Stephen Lee. -
2015-2016
September
Pulled Over: How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship by Charles R. Epp, Steven Maynard-Moody and Donald P. Haider-Markel.
Discussion led by Prof. Mario Barnes, with emphasis on chapters 1-4 and 7October
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Discussion led by Prof. Kaaryn Gustafson
The Alchemy of Race and Rights by Patricia J. Williams. Discussion led by Prof. Jonathan GlaterNovember
Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics and Big Business Recreate Race in the Twenty-First Century by Dorothy Roberts
Co-sponsored with the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy, this special Author Meets Reader event featured author Dorothy Roberts speaking about her book.The Round House by Louise Erdrich.
Discussion led by Prof. Seth DavisJanuary
Film Discussion: American Denial by Llewellyn Smith, Christine Herbes-Sommers, Kelly Thomson
Book Discussion: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Discussion led by Prof. Funmi ArewaFebruary
Author Meets Readers: Normal Life by Dean Spade
Dean Spade, Associate Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law, discussed the newly revised and expanded edition of the book, Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law (Duke University Press, 2015).
Perspectives Afternoon at the Theater: Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris
Robert Cohen Theatre, UC Irvine UCI School of the Arts production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, followed by a post-show discussion.
Discussion on Social Movements with Hamid Khan of Los Angeles Community Action Network.
Discussion led by Prof. Song RichardsonMarch
Book Discussion: The Making of Asian America by Erika Lee.
Discussion led by Profs. Catherine Fisk and Summer KimApril
Discussion: “Reparations in the U.S.: Redressing Historical Injustices through Contemporary Law”.
Discussion led by students Jamila Benkato and Lauren Lystrup -
2014-2015
September
Hate Thy Neighbor: Move-In Violence and the Persistence of Racial Segregation in American Housing by Jeannine Bell.
Discussion led by Prof. Mario BarnesOctober
The Slums of Aspen: Immigrants vs. the Environment in America’s Eden by Lisa Park.
Discussion led by Prof. Kaaryn GustafsonNovember
This Indian Country: American Indian Activists
and the Place They Made by Frederick E. Hoxie.
Discussion led by Prof. Seth DavisJanuary
Covering, 111 YALE L.J. 769 (2002) by Kenji Yoshino.
Masculinity as Prison, 99 Cal. L. REV. 1309 (2011) by Russell Robinson.
Student-led discussionFebruary
Degrees of Inequality: How the Politics of Higher Education Sabotaged the American Dream by Suzanne Mettler.
Discussion led by Prof. Jonathan GlaterMarch
Miss Hazel and the Rosa Parks League by Jonathan Odell.
Discussion led by Prof. Michele GoodwinApril
Justice Accused: Antislavery and the Judicial Process by Robert M. Cover.
Discussion led by Prof. Sameer Ashar -
2013-2014
October
Acting White? Rethinking Race in Post-Racial America by Devon W. Carbado and Mitu Gulati.
Discussion led by Prof. Jonathan GlaterNovember
Replenished Ethnicity: Mexican Americans, Immigration and Identity by Tomás R. Jiménez.
Discussion led by Prof. Jennifer ChacónJanuary
Racing to Justice: Transforming Our Conceptions of Self
and Other to Build an Inclusive Society by john a. powell.
Discussion led by Prof. Mario BarnesFebruary
Twelve Years A Slave by Solomon Northup.
Discussion led by Prof. Olufunmilayo ArewaMarch
Undoing Border Imperialism by Harsha Walia.
Discussion led by Prof. Sameer AsharApril
Immigration Outside the Law by Hiroshi Motomura.
Discussion led by author Hiroshi Motomura and Prof. Stephen Lee -
2012-2013
January
Representing the Race: The Making of the Civil Rights Lawyer by Kenneth Mack.
Discussion led by Prof. Mario BarnesFebruary
Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class and Environmental Quality by Robert Bullard.
Discussion led by Prof. Carrie Menkel-MeadowMarch
Conflicting Commitments: The Politics of Enforcing Immigrant Worker Rights in San Jose and Houston by Shannon Gleeson.
Discussion led by Prof. Stephen LeeApril
Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia, edited by Muhs, Nieman, Gonzalez, and Harris.
Discussion led by Prof. Jennifer Chacón -
2011-2012
January
Working for Justice: The L.A. Model of Organizing and Advocacy by Ruth Milkman, Joshua Bloom, and Victor Narro.
Discussion led by Profs. Catherine Fisk and Sameer AsharFebruary
Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism by Derrick Bell.
Discussion led by Prof. Mario BarnesMarch
Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race by Laura Gomez.
Discussion led by Prof. Jennifer ChacónApril
And We Are Not Saved: The Elusive Quest for Racial Justice by Derrick Bell.
Discussion led by Prof. Jonathan Glater -
2010-2011
January
Covering by Kenji Yoshino.
Discussion led by Prof. Carrie Menkel-MeadowFebruary
Racism without Racists by Eduardo Bonilla Silva.
Discussion led by Prof. Trina JonesMarch
Maid in the U.S.A. by Mary Romero.
Discussion led by Profs. Mario Barnes and Jennifer ChacónApril
Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting by Vijay Prashad.
Discussion led by Prof. Stephen Lee