Release date: Jan. 19, 2005
Contact: Elaine Justice, Associate Director, University Media Relations,
at 404-727-0643 or elaine.justice@emory.edu

Emory's Thrower Symposium Explores Family Law

Nationally renowned experts will explore how laws shape and define families in the 21st century during the 2005 Randolph W. Thrower Symposium, to be held 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., Feb. 17 at Emory Law School. The event, "Families in the 21st Century: Changing Dynamics, Institutions and Policies," is free and open to the public.

Featured speakers include Frank Alexander, professor of law at Emory and director of the school's Project on Affordable Housing and Community Development. He will discuss "The Housing of America's Families: Moving Beyond Control, Exclusion and Privilege."

Alexander is the author of more than 30 publications. His work in recent years has focused on community development and affordable housing. He also founded the school's Law and Religion program and still serves as its co-director.

Nancy Dowd, co-director of the University of Florida's Levin College of Law Center for Children and Families, will present "Founding Fathers and Nurturing Fathers: A Critique of Recent U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Fatherhood." Dowd has written extensively on fatherhood, single parent families and family law.

Theodore Marmor, professor at the Yale School of Management, will present "The American Welfare State and the 21st-Century American Family: Myths, Realities and Reflections." Marmor regularly testifies before Congress about medical reform, social security and welfare issue. He also is professor of political science at Yale and an adjunct professor of Yale Law School.

Dorothy Roberts of Northwestern University School of Law will speak on "Privatization and Punishment in the New Age of Reprogenetics." She is an expert on the interplay of gender, race and class in legal issues concerning reproduction, motherhood and child welfare. Marc Spindelman of Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law will discuss "Homosexuality's Horizon," drawing on his research on sex equality theory, queer theory and public health ethics.

For more information or to register for CLE credits for the symposium, call the Emory Law Journal at 404-727-1842. Five general CLE credits will be offered at $5 per hour.

The Thrower Symposium is part of an endowed lecture series sponsored by the family of Randolph W. Thrower, Emory law class of 1936, and hosted by the law school and the Emory Law Journal. A reception will be held immediately following the symposium.

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