Inaugural Fellow - CRS Law Teaching Fellowship (2009-2010)

“I am very excited to return to UCLA School of Law, where my experience in the Critical Race Studies Program encouraged me to integrate my work as a lawyer, a professional, and an academic.”

      Addie Rolnick ’04, an associate at Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Endreson & Perry, LLP in Washington D.C., a national law firm devoted to representing Native Ameican interests, has been selected as the CRS Law Teaching Fellow.  The two-year fellowship was established in 2008 as part the CRS Program’s initiative to develop the next generation of law professors conducting research and writing in critical race theory, a scholarly field that emerged within legal academia only twenty years ago, and which has transformed race theory in the United States.

     Addie will use the fellowship to pursue an ambitious research project that examines how the divergent development of race law and Indian law can obscure the effects of racism and the legal construction of race. The goal of her project is to explore how a full accounting of Indian racialization, that does not dismiss the significance of Indian tribes as governments and political entities, might enrich race theory and facilitate more fruitful discussions of race and racism, and how they affect Native American people.

     “We are extremely impressed with Addie Rolnick, given her persistence at bridging Indian law and Critical Race Theory as both a student and a practicing lawyer, and we are enthusiastic about her selection as the first CRS Law Teaching Fellow,” CRS Faculty Director, Professor Jerry Kang, said.  “Scholars who are willing to bridge complex areas of intellectual thought make indispensable contributions and we are fortunate that our first law fellow will be conducting this important work here at UCLA Law,” Kang, who is overseeing the program’s launch of the CRS Future Law Professors Track during his tenure as CRS Faculty Director, said.

     As an associate at Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Endreson & Perry, Addie has focused on representing tribes in their dealings with Congress and administrative agencies. She works directly with tribal governments, members of Congress, federal agencies, nonprofit Indian advocacy groups and non-Indian public interest groups concerning an array of legislative issues, such as law enforcement and justice, health care, and natural resource development.  She has also worked on behalf of tribes in federal court litigation and federal recognition petitions.

     Like most students enrolled in the CRS specialization, her practical legal interests were always fused with a deep intellectual curiosity in race theory.  She wrote a thesis entitled, “Developing a Tribal Juvenile Justice System: A Case Study of the Native Village of Barrow,” and graduated from UCLA with a joint degree in Law and American Indian Studies .  Recently, her legislative advocacy has focused more specifically on law enforcement and juvenile justice issues, assisting tribal governments seeking to build justice systems that reflect tribal traditions, but also comport with external notions of fairness, accountability and security. 

     And true to the CRS’ mission to think, teach and transform, she has come full circle in deciding to integrate her interests in Indian law and CRT as a legal scholar.

     “After four years as a practicing attorney, I was seeking a fellowship that would allow me to focus on scholarship, provide me an opportunity to further develop my background in race studies, and to hone my teaching skills without requiring that I divorce my thinking entirely from the non-academic world,” Addie says.

      In addition to research and writing, the CRS Fellowship will allow Addie to develop and teach courses in the CRS curriculum related to her own research areas.  This will deepen the critical teacher-student interaction within the CRS community that has proved so fruitful to her own development. Professor Carole Goldberg, a leading expert in Indian law and a core faculty member of the CRS program, will work closely with Addie, her former student, during the fellowship. Professor Goldberg stated that Addie has “a wonderfully questioning mind, which will be essential to pursuing difficult inquiries that almost no one in the academy is giving adequate attention to.”

     Addie has taught “Formation of Federal Indian Policy” to undergraduates at American University, as part of the Washington Internships for Native Students summer program, and and looks forward to teaching within the CRS curriculum and collaborating with CRS students and faculty on the program’s symposia, research colloquia and on-going activities. Addie will be the CRS Fellow from January 2009 – December 2010.

      
To learn more about the CRS Law Teaching Fellowship, please click here.