Connecting across difference has rarely been more important or more difficult. It is possible to be right next to someone physically, witness the same set of events, and yet having a completely different response, emotionally and otherwise. Mindfulness practices can help us to appreciate the uniqueness (and sometimes even strangeness) of our experience and enhance our capacity to empathize with the experience of others. Please join Profs. Elizabeth Emens, Kendall Thomas and Columbia Law students as they discuss the role of mindfulness in their lives, work and research. Professor Kathryn Judge will moderate.
This is a special event, co-sponsored by the CLS Mindfulness Program, Student Services and the Vice Dean for Intellectual Life. Any member of the CU community is welcome to join, but we ask that anyone outside the law school register here at least 48 hours in advance. Lunch will be provided on a fist come, first served basis.
This event is part of the Dialogue Across Difference initiative supported by the Office of the Provost.
Elizabeth Emens is the Thomas M. Macioce Professor of Law and the Director of the Mindfulness Program at Columbia Law School. She writes and teaches on disability law, family law, anti-discrimination law, contracts, and law and sexuality, as well as co-teaching a practicum on lawyer leadership as part of the Law School’s Davis Polk Leadership Initiative. She clerked for Judge Robert D. Sack of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and she earned her JD and BA from Yale and her PhD from King's College, Cambridge. Her teacher training in mindfulness has been through the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness, the Mindful Schools program, and the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program.
Kathryn Judge is the Harvey J. Goldschmid Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Intellectual Life at Columbia Law School. Her research focuses on banking, financial innovation, financial crises, and regulatory architecture. Her academic work has received accolades from academic peers and industry. Judge currently serves on the Research Committee and Law Working Paper Series Editorial Board for the European Corporate Governance Institute. Prior to joining Columbia Law School, Judge clerked for Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Stephen Breyer of the Supreme Court. She also worked as a corporate associate with Latham & Watkins LLP. She is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Wesleyan University.
Jungmin Kang is a second year J.D. Candidate at Columbia Law School, and an international student from the Republic of Korea. At Columbia, he is involved in the Queer and Trans Students of Color (QTPOC) Organization, the Gastronomy Society, OUTLAWS, and the International Student Alliance (CLISA). Prior to law school, Jungmin spent time as a professional translator, performer, and officer in the Korean Air Force.
Kiana Taghavi (she/her) is the Executive Coordinator of the Columbia Center for Contemporary Critical Thought. Prior to this, Kiana served as the Program Coordinator of the CLS Mindfulness Program for two years. She has been involved with the Justice-in-Education Initiative and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. She is an alum of Columbia College and will be joining the Class of 2027 at the Law School.
Kendall Thomas is the Nash Professor of law at Columbia Law School. He is a scholar of comparative constitutional law and human rights whose teaching and research focus on critical race theory, legal philosophy, feminist legal theory, and law and sexuality. Thomas is the co-founder and director of the Center for the Study of Law and Culture at Columbia Law School, where he leads interdisciplinary projects and programs that explore how the law operates as one of the central ways to create meaning in society. Thomas has taught at Columbia Law since 1986, and his writing has appeared in volumes of collected essays and in journals including National Black Law Journal, Widener Law Symposium Journal, and Columbia Journal of European Law.
