Speaker
Oct 2, 2025: 5:10 pm - 6:10 pm
Stackhouse
Olatunde Johnson, Ruth Bader Ginsburg '59 Professor of Law, Columbia University
Known for her distinguished scholarship in civil procedure, legislation, and anti-discrimination law, Olatunde Johnson is equally committed to cultivating the next generation of civic-minded lawyers. In the classroom, Johnson draws on her background of legal practice and government service to illustrate how social change can be affected through litigation as well as problem-solving outside the courtroom.
Johnson will discuss how equal protection, understood in both constitutional and statutory terms, has failed to attend to environmental sacrifice zones — geographic spaces in which environment harms are concentrated. The talk will provide this account through the lens of the St John the Baptist Parish community located in the 85 mile long corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana known as Cancer Alley.