Invitation to University Professor Anita Hill's Lecture and Reception

Sept. 10, 2015

We are delighted to invite you to a talk by Anita Hill in celebration of her appointment as University Professor of Social Policy, Law and Women’s Studies at Brandeis. The lecture will be held on Thursday, September 24, from 5 to 6 p.m., in the Sherman Function Hall. A reception for Professor Hill will follow immediately thereafter in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium.

To be named a University Professor is the highest designation accorded a Brandeis faculty member. This title is awarded to scholars whose work cuts across disciplinary boundaries, who have achieved exceptional scholarly or professional distinction within the academic community, and whose appointment enhances the university’s reputation and prestige.

The focus of Professor Hill’s address will have the immediacy of this summer’s headlines. In June, in a decision that promises to energize American desegregation efforts, the U.S. Supreme Court endorsed a broad interpretation of the 1968 Fair Housing Act. The Court confirmed that the law proscribes not only overt, intentional acts of discrimination but also policies and practices that are “fair in form, but discriminatory in operation.”

In her talk, “Undoing ‘Generations of Rank Discrimination’: Inclusive Communities and the Future of Anti-Bias Forensics,” Professor Hill will discuss how the Court’s decision could change the way housing, employment and education bias cases are argued and proven. The talk’s title is inspired by the words of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who during the case’s oral arguments reminded listeners that the “grand goal” of the Fair Housing Act was to “undo generations of rank discrimination.”

We hope you can join us on September 24 for what will surely be an important and illuminating event.

Best regards,

Lisa M. Lynch
Interim President

Irving R. Epstein
Henry F. Fischbach Professor of Chemistry and Interim Provost