Dear Colleagues,
This academic year has been a point of considerable challenges domestically and abroad. Many of the concerns of our nation and world from poverty, democracy, racial justice, sex equality, and LGBTQIA rights to gun violence, reproductive justice, war, and conflict surface in your research, scholarship, and advocacy. The gravity of these concerns is exemplified in the tensions unfolding in law, spreading across society, and playing out in legislatures and courts. In times such as these, the power of the academic voice could not be more important.
For many of you, your scholarship is shaping local, national, and international policy conversations in these times. You have influenced discourse in and outside the university setting—and in doing so enriched discourse—from formal scholarship—essays, chapters, and articles to opinion editorials and amicus briefs. I want to thank you, because you recognize that the weight of these concerns is undeniable and cannot be ignored.
This year’s annual meeting in Denver features panels across these concerns. It will be a robust meeting, offering a level-setting and generally advancing the question, how might academics advance the most critical issues of our society especially in a period when universities and colleges are under immense scrutiny and their leadership under attack. I look forward to welcoming each of you there.
Michele Bratcher Goodwin
LSA President