Windsor Law Associate Dean (Research and Graduate Studies) Laverne Jacobs has been invited to participate in a collaborative, multi-university law course this fall that will bring together professors from around the world over a period of several weeks for their expert instruction.

Convened by Berkeley Law (located at the University of California Berkeley) the online course, entitled “COVID-19 and Global Inequalities,” will explore the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on members of disadvantaged communities through the lens of equality law. Dr. Jacobs, an expert in the areas of critical disability theory, equality and administrative law, will teach a session during the course’s pandemic and disability module.

“Our course starts from the recognition that the pandemic’s impact has been disproportionately felt by people who are already experiencing systemic disadvantage due to race, ethnicity, gender, disability, Indigeneity, poverty, age, (among other grounds) and intersections of identity,” says Jacobs.

“I hope that through this course we are not only able to identify some of the ways in which inequality emerges structurally around the world but to engage students in a cross-cultural dialogue on why and how law should better serve the ideals of justice.”

Jacobs will invite interested law students to observe three of the course lecture days and participate on those days in online discussions with other law students from around the world. Among other topics, the course modules will also cover COVID inequality as it relates to gender, race, LGBTQ+, and Indigenous peoples.

— Rachelle Prince