Columbia Law Professor Katherine M. Franke Speaks to Dalton Seniors
On Friday, October 1, Katherine M. Franke, James L. Dohr Professor of Law at Columbia University, addressed two senior elective classes via Zoom, "(Dis)order in the Courts: Gender and American Legal History" and "The Black Radical Tradition."
Professor Franke, who directs Columbia's Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, discussed her 2015 book, Wedlocked: The Perils of Marriage Equality. The book explores Reconstruction-era America's encouragement of newly emancipated Black men and women to engage in the legal institution of marriage, from which they had previously been excluded.
In Friday’s presentation, Franke compared the historical case study to same-sex marriage today. She engaged the class in a captivating conversation regarding the pitfalls and the promises that the state licensing and legal regulation of Americans' private lives entails.