Newswise — University of Arkansas at Little Rock experts are available for interviews focused on Civil Liberties & Social Justice Thematic Wire.
Reparations: Human rights scholar, advocate, and attorney Adjoa Aiyetoro, who joined UALR's Bowen School of Law in 2004, is a national and international expert on the subject of reparations African descentants. She serves as a consultant to the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Chief Legal Consultant for the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N'COBRA). Her extensive background in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division includes litigating cases involving the rights of the institutionalized and developed an expertise in prisoner rights. Professor Aiyetoro has extensive experience working domestically and internationally to obtain remedies for historical and present day wrongs to people of color, women and other oppressed groups. She represented the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) (2000-2001) at the World Conference Against Racism, including attending all the preparatory meetings and serving as a leader of the African and African Descendant Caucus. In 1995 she coordinated the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law's delegation to the United Nations' Conference on Women in Beijing and also represented the organization at the 2000 Beijing Plus 5.
First Amendment issues: As an interpreter and defender of Freedom of Information laws, UALR law Professor Rick Peltz has made perhaps his greatest impact. By creating how-to manuals, he enables others to pursue their freedoms and keep a watchful eye on elected representatives. In the past year, Peltz has published three law review articles and served as a consultant and speaker for groups as varied as the Arkansas legislature, law professors in Japan, and the Society for Professional Journalists. His sound theoretical bases and innovative pragmatism appeal to those who make the laws, those who study them, and those whose work is impacted by legislation.
After earning his bachelor's degree from Washington and Lee University, Peltz earned his juris doctor from Duke University. He is a member of the Association of American Law Schools and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and has been admitted to the bar associations in Maryland and the District of Columbia.
Immigration: Immigrant's rights, individual liberty vs. national security: Ranko Shiraki Oliver, a native of Mexico, teaches and researches immigration law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Fluent in Spanish, she has also served as a simultaneous interpreter in court and worked on the certification of interpreters for the Arkansas Supreme Court. She has conducted continuing education courses for attorneys and numerous presentations to other groups in the areas of disability law and legal writing. She teaches Legal Writing, Immigration Law and Disability Law.
U.S. foreign policy and "despotic" regimes: Venezuela, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Myanmar, Pakistan, Cuba: Jeffery T. Walker, professor of criminal justice and international president of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, an international association of criminal justice representing thousands from the criminal justice profession in the U.S and 20 foreign countries. A native of Mena, Ark., and a special agent in the Air Force Reserve's Office of Special Investigations at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, Walker has written over 25 journal articles and book chapters, 15 technical reports, and delivered over 50 professional papers and presentations. He has also written or edited five books, including Leading Cases in Law Enforcement, Statistics in Criminal Justice and Criminology: Analysis and Interpretation, and Myths in Crime and Justice. He has obtained over $9 million in grants from the Department of Justice, National Institute of Drug Abuse, and others. He has lectured at world conferences on democracy and global security.
Gender, racial, or sexual inequalities: hiring discrimination, affirmative action, profiling, stereotyping " Theresa M. Beiner, associate professor of law at the University of Arak nsas at Little Rock's William H. Bowen School of Law, is a pioneer in sexual harassment law. She was the first to apply psychological, sociological, and other social scientific data to systematically determine which behaviors ought to be treated legally as sexual harassment. Her work includes articles in the nation's leading law journals. Her book, Gender Myths v. Working Realities: Using Social Science to Reformulate Sexual Harassment Law, was the first to closely examine ways in which the law fails to deal with realities of sexual harassment in the workplace. Professor Beiner provides valuable insight into which behaviors people perceive as sexually harassing, why such behavior can be characterized as harassment, and which types of workplaces are more conducive to sexually harassing behavior. Others praised Professor Beiner's social science research for its direct applications to sexual harassment law, maintaining the volume, "is a must read in the legal community " for students, legal scholars, lawyers, judges, and those who endeavor to better understand and reform the law and its practices."
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