Two groundbreaking lectures will take place at UNM School of Law on Thursday, March 22.

First, Professor Deleso Alford from Florida A&M University College of Law presents the Henrietta Lacks and HeLa Cells portion of “The HER-story” series on interdisciplinary collaboration in teaching medical and health equity, as part of her three-day UNM main campus and UNM Health Sciences engagement with the Visiting Diversity Scholars series.

Alford will present in the Law Library, King Room from 4:15–5 p.m. Refreshments will be offered after the lecture from 5–5:15 p.m.

Participant who wish to attend the next lecture, proceed to room 2401 at this time.

From 5:15 p.m.–6 p.m. Alford will hold a Q&A and discuss her body of groundbreaking legal scholarship, which details the ways in which African descendant women’s bodies have served as a critical site for American medical research and discoveries—since the era of racial slavery to contemporary times. 

Space is limited. RSVP to rawls@law.unm.edu.

The second lecture starting at 5:15 p.m. features Atieno Mboya Samandari, postdoctoral fellow and adjunct professor at Emory University School of Law. She is presenting a lecture titled "Human Rights and the Global Climate Regime" in room 2401.  

Samandari will examine the human rights implications of the market-based mechanisms operationalized under the global climate change regime and proposed allocation of carbon investment rights for developing countries as a means of promoting climate justice. 

In conjunction with this topic, she will present an eco-feminist perspective on the neoliberal response to climate change.

Samandari holds a master of international and comparative law from Georgetown University Law Center and a doctor of juridical science from Emory Law School. She began her professional career as an environmental and women’s rights advocate in Kenya, followed by gender and law work in the Africa region for the World Bank in Washington, D. C.

She was a winner of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and did her research on the role of human rights education in promoting democratic transitions in South Africa. Her current research and writing focuses on international environmental law and gender using a human vulnerability framework.

This lecture is hosted by The Natural Resources Journal of UNM School of Law, Women's Law Caucus, and the Environmental Law Society.

The law school is located at 1117 Stanford NE. Parking is free after 5 p.m.

For more information, contact Laura at 505-277-3253.