BACKGROUND

The Feminism and Legal Theory Project (FLT Project) was begun in 1984 by Martha L.A. Fineman at the University of Wisconsin Law School.  The initial objective of the Project was to provide a forum for interdisciplinary feminist scholarship addressing important issues in law and society. The early years of the project were funded through grants from the Wisconsin Law School’s Institute for Legal Studies.  Over the first six years, summer workshops brought scholars together around contested issues where they considered such topics as gender difference, violence against women, and motherhood.

In 1990, the FLT Project moved with Martha to Columbia Law School, where the number of workshop sessions each year was increased from one in the summer to three or four during the academic year.  In 1999, the Project relocated to Cornell Law School where Martha held the first endowed Chair in the U.S.A. in Feminist Jurisprudence.  The Project once again expanded its scope, adding “Uncomfortable Conversations” to the regular workshop schedule.

In 2004, the FLT Project moved to its current home at Emory University Law School, where Martha holds a Robert W. Woodruff Professorship.  Funds from the Woodruff Professorship support the Project and its programming.  The move to Emory and Atlanta has allowed the FLT Project to reach a greater audience and attract scholars from around the world. 

At Emory the Project initiated a very successful Visiting Scholars Program.  Each year between five and eight scholars from around the world come to Emory for periods of time ranging from one week to the entire academic year.  In addition, the Project added a series of speakers on “Critical Perspectives on the Core Curriculum” to the existing programming in 2005.

Over the past several decades the FLT Project has grown from holding an annual conference, to hosting multiple workshops, conversations, and presentations throughout the year.  As a result, each year distinguished visitors and speakers bring a wealth of new ideas and energy to Emory. 

The Project has also taken its message “on the road” and partnered with groups of interested feminists from other Universities, including the Universities of Wisconsin and SUNY-Buffalo in the United States and Keele and Ulster Universities in the United Kingdom.  Holding joint workshops and encouraging others to explore gender issues has allowed the FLT model to expand beyond the Project itself. 

Even with the tremendous growth in the programming over the past several years, the Project’s basic structure and core commitment remain the same: to foster interdisciplinary examinations of specific law and policy topics of particular interest to women.  More generally, the Project addresses the intersection of gender with issues relating to race, class, ability, and sexuality.  There is also attention to the legal and social position of children and other vulnerable populations.  

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the FLT Project are:

1.      to support and encourage feminist scholarship on gender and legal equality issues that analyzed the differential impact of law on women and men, and to consider also in this regard differences that exist or arise between differently situated women;

2.   to provide a forum within which feminist theorists could present their work and receive feedback from other scholars who share a common theoretical perspective and methodology; and 

3. to provide a means to introduce scholarship that applied feminist theory and methodology into legal debate, legislative reform movements, and the broader academic community through publication of the conference papers. 

Nothing is off limits!  The FLT Project is committed to challenging the status quo!!!!! 

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