Kathryn Abrams

Hearing the Call of Stories

In this Article, Professor Abrams examines the emergence offeminist narrative scholarship as a distinctive form of critical legal discourse. Arguing that the failure to debate publicly the conventions and merits of this form has perpetuated misunderstandings about its claims and disadvantaged its practitioners, she begins by examining several of the critiques that have been offered, in nonpublic settings, offeminist narratives. To provide background and context for examining these critiques, she then analyzes four recent examples offeminist narrative legal scholarship. In the final section of the Article, Professor Abrams returns to the opening critiques. She argues that their grounding in the methodological assumptions of objectivity does not render these critiques unusable, but requires that they be restated in terms more consistent with the methodological and epistemological assumptions of narrative. After discussing possible ways of refraining these objections, Professor Abrams explains how proponents of narrative scholarship might respond to them, highlighting not only the conventions of narrative scholarship but also emergent criteria for evaluating the efforts of its practitioners. At the center of Jeanette Wintersons novel The Passion I is a visionary storyteller. Patrick is an Irish parish priest who possesses a unique

Title VII and the Complex Female Subject

Sitting in Nedicks the women rally before they march discussing the problematic girls they hire to make them free. An almost white counterman passes a waiting brother to serve them first and the ladies neither notice nor reject the slighter pleasures of their slavery. But I who am bound by my mirror as well as my bed see causes in color as well as sex. and sit here wondering which me will survive all these liberations.

Law in the Cultivation of Hope

This Article focuses on two central questions: how does one cultivate hope in another, and how, in particular can this cultivation be achieved through law? The Article proceeds in three parts. Part I uncovers the structure of hope as an emotion. Although hope has traditionally been the domain of theologians, it is increasingly garnering the attention of philosophers and social scientists who stress its pragmatic and empowering aspects as well as its social importance. Following works of this kind, our account of hope seeks to counter a faith-based, passive image of hope, which remains prevalent in our culture. We formulate a workable definition of hope and distinguish it from related terms such as wishing, planning, and optimism. We identify several qualities that are necessary for an individual to become capable of hope or, as we put it, become a subject of hope. These qualities include the ability to imagine new possibilities not encompassed by one’s present condition; a sense of agency sufficient to consider oneself capable of pursuing, and attaining, distant objectives; and adequate imaginative, strategic, and material resources to develop, assess, and implement means for realizing such goals. Part II goes beyond hope in the individual context to consider a less discussed possibility: an active, external effort to cultivate emotions in others. In some situations, particularly where despair has taken over, it may be impossible for people to conceive alternative futures for themselves, or see themselves as capable of creating such futures. In these settings it may be necessary for individuals who are not so constrained to help cultivate hope in others. This Part develops a profile of a beneficial effort to cultivate hope in others, which reflects five central elements: communicating recognition and vision; introducing an activity that allows for individuation; providing resources; supporting agency; and fostering solidarity. We then observe that, given the systematic character of many of the social problems that give rise to despair, individual efforts to cultivate hope - whether through legal or other means – may not be enough. It may be necessary to cultivate hope through institutional interventions, including those secured by law. Part III applies the preceding analysis to the cultivation of hope through institutions established by law. It examines an effort to cultivate hope through one such institution: Project Head Start. The Article concludes by framing a series of questions arising from our initial exploration, and by highlighting several possible roles that law might play in cultivating hope. It calls for further investigation of the promising notion that by supporting the emergence of certain emotions, law may play an empowering and facilitating role in our lives.

Law's Republicanism

Legal scholars are natural scavengers. Perhaps law lies at the intersection of many bodies of human understanding, or perhaps the four walls of legal doctrine make for a particularly narrow space. But we can rarely resist the urge to prowl the terrain of another discipline, and haul its juiciest morsels back to our lair. Republicanism is our latest find. The collectivist strain in American politics that was highlighted by historians in the 1960s, and flourished as an alternative to Rawlsian liberalism in the early 1980s, has now been appropriated by legal scholars. As this recycling of ideas is inevitable and invigorating to legal analysis, the issue is not that it is done, but rather how it is done. Here, I will argue, there may be cause for concern. The legal foray into republicanism has been sidetracked by its intellectual premises. Straitened by the distinctive problems and perspectives of liberal legalism, it has produced a muted hybrid, oddly focused on the role of the courts.

Women and Antiwar Protest: Rearticulating Gender and Citizenship

INTRODUCTION 849 I. PROTEST AND WARTIME CITIZENSHIP 851 A. The Ambivalent Status of Protest 851 B. Wartime Citizenship 852 C. The Contemporary Context of Women’s Antiwar Protest 856 II. THREE WOMEN’S ANTIWAR MOVEMENTS 858 A. Cindy Sheehan and the Camp Casey Vigil 858 B. CODEPINK for Peace 863 C. Women in Black 865 III. REARTICULATING GENDER, RECREATING CITIZENSHIP 868 A. Gender and the Body Politic 868 1. The Angry Mother 869 2. The Gendered Direct-Action Performer 871 3. The Woman as Witness 872 B. Gendered Antiwar Protest and Political Efficacy 872 C. Gendered Antiwar Protest and the Paradoxes of Women’s Citizenship 876 CONCLUSION 880

Contentious Citizenship: Undocumented Activism in the Not1More Deportation Campaign

This article examines a key shift in the activism of undocumented immigrants: the move from pro-system, institutionally-focused politics to the more contentious, direct action politics of the Not1More Deportation campaign. I trace this shift by analyzing three dimensions of undocumented activism: the content of the narratives or experiential accounts shared by activists; the tactics utilized by DREAMers and community-based organizations of undocumented immigrants; and the strategies of emotion management and emotional performance adopted by activists. I argue that this move toward contentious politics was fueled by an iterative process of movement claims-making and institutional response, which both empowered undocumented activists and rendered them skeptical of reliance on formal institutions or political parties. This article draws on several years of empirical research with undocumented activists in the state of Arizona; it analyzes the Not1MoreDeportation campaign as it has occurred both in Arizona and nationwide.

Seeking Emotional Ends with Legal Means

Introduction 1657 I. Two Approaches to Law and the Emotions 1659 A. Emotions Shaping Law: A Field Emerges 1659 B. Law Shaping Emotions: Sources of Skepticism 1661 1. Critiques of Purposeful Efforts to Cultivate Emotions Through Law 1663 2. A Critique of Restorative Justice 1665 3. Common Premises and Questions 1667 II. Minow on Law, Forgiveness, and Repair 1671 Conclusion 1677

Introduction: The Distinctive Energies of 'Normal Science'

This articles introduces Issues in Legal Scholarships issue on feminist legal theory.