TuksLaw Jurisprudence lecturer and critical race scholar, Mr Joel Modiri, has been selected as a member of the first group of Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity, a programme that seeks to overcome racism and white supremacy in the United States and South Africa.

As one of 29 inaugural Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity, Modiri will participate in mentorships, seminars and other efforts to combat racial discrimination and violence in both countries. He will also receive an award of 10 000 US dollars to continue his research in the field of race and law, Black Consciousness, and African jurisprudence.

Modiri joined the UP Faculty of Law in 2016 and has since been recognised as Lecturer of the Year for the first-year group. 

He has authored many articles, considered influential, in the fields of critical race theory and legal education, such as 'The time and space of critical legal pedagogy'; 'The colour of law, power and knowledge: Introducing Critical Race Theory in (post-)apartheid South Africa', 'Race, realism and critique: the politics of Afriforum v Malema in the (in)equality court' and 'Law's poverty'. Modiri also contributes regularly to the Daily Maverick on issues of race and decolonisation.

During his fellowship year (2018), Modiri hopes to complete a book on the social and political philosophy of Black Consciousness, and to design an MPhil programme on Race, Law and Social Change.

This 2018 cohort of Atlantic Fellows includes activists, artists and other leaders at the forefront of efforts to end racism at top universities and in other public interest organizations in the United States and South Africa. Theirs is the first of ten such groups that will participate in the ten-year, $60 million programme, funded primarily by the Atlantic Philanthropies, the vast charitable organization that works to improve the lives of disadvantaged people across the world.

The Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity is based at Columbia University in New York, and the Nelson Mandela Foundation is based in Johannesburg. The Atlantic Fellowship is a partnership of the Legal Defense and Education Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at the University of Berkeley, the Center for Community Change, and Black Organising for Leadership and Dignity (BOLD).

See the link for more information: https://racialequity.atlanticfellows.org/