Motivation to Teach Social Action:
As an attorney, retired NYPD Deputy Inspector and professor I have a passion for infusing both my practical experiences and theoretical pedagogy into the subjects of law and criminal justice.
Course Description:
This course examines where grassroots activism and the legal system meet, clash, and reshape one another. Students will explore how social movements use legal tools—and sometimes work outside them—to pursue change, drawing on accessible case studies from the civil rights movement, labor organizing, environmental activism, and current social justice campaigns.
Through readings, discussion, and hands-on activities like mock advocacy exercises and policy briefs, students will build a foundational understanding of how activism influences law, and how law in turn shapes the strategies, limits, and possibilities of social movements. The course encourages critical thinking about when working within legal systems is effective versus when direct action becomes necessary, and it examines real-world tensions between activists, lawmakers, and courts.
By the end of the course, students will be able to explain the reciprocal relationship between social action and legal change, identify historical and contemporary examples of this intersection, and form their own informed opinions on the role of law in achieving social justice.
Taught By:
Charlane Brown
Professor
School of Professional Studies
Berkeley College
Read profile here.