150 law faculty gathered at the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice, at UC Berkeley School of Law, on March 14 & 15, 2008, to listen and share how to promote teaching for social change in American law schools. The opening plenary had a late addition: George Lakoff, Professor of Linguistics at UC Berkeley and co-founder of the Rockridge Institute. He joined Eva Jefferson Paterson, President of Equal Justice Society; Howard Pinderhughes, UC, San Francisco; and former Justice of the California Supreme Court (and founding board member of SALT) Cruz Reynoso. The title of the opening plenary was "Liberation, Hope, and Teaching for Social Change."

In addition to nuts & bolts concurrent sessions devoted to specific courses and to issues arising from the challenges of teaching social justice issues, both days included lunchtime speakers. On Friday Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles Ducommon Professor of Education, Stanford University, spoke about America's decline as a top educator. On Saturday Mari Matsuda and Charles Lawrence, both from Georgetown Law School, spoke passionately about why they teach for social change.

Friday night dinner at the historic Bancroft Hotel was dedicated to poet, songwriter, lawyer, and activist, Chris Iijima. Aviam Soifer, Dean of University of Hawai'i School of Law, hosted the evening which included viewing a documentary film in-progress by Karen Ishizuka and Tad Nakamura, and presentations by Eric Yamamoto, Mari Matsuda, Michele Anglade, Michael Perlin, and Chris' son.

Check the "Teaching for Social Change" webpage for materials as presenters submit their outlines and articles for posting.

SALT's Teaching Conference Committee, chaired by Patricia Falk, and including Reginald Oh, Tayyab Mahmud, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Lorraine Bannai, and Jane Dolkart deserve many thanks for a sensational and stimulating conference.

SALT also thanks the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice for hosting the conference, and our generous sponsors: Aspen Publishers, Santa Clara University School of Law, University of San Francisco School of Law, Denver University Sturm College of Law, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Cleveland State University, The Recorder, and California Newsreel.