Keynote Address
Beyond the Headline: How Storytelling Shapes Second Chances
In this keynote, award-winning filmmaker and community advocate Shuja Moore invites audiences into a narrative experience that explores how storytelling shapes public understanding of justice, accountability, and second chances. The session features a screening of Changing Course, a short documentary examining Philadelphia’s youth diversion initiative and efforts to redirect justice-involved youth away from incarceration and toward community-based support. Following the film, Shuja participates in a fireside chat and audience dialogue that connects the film’s themes to lived experience and the power of narrative to influence public perception, policy, and the possibilities for redemption and reentry.
You can learn more about Shuja’s work at: domooregood.org and pardonsnow.org.
Workshop 1
Worldbuilding: A Conversation with Law School Deans
Law School Deans are uniquely positioned to be the lightning rod for both internal and external stakeholders’ ire when it comes to most law school issues. Yet, that unique positioning gives Deans an invaluable perspective on the challenges facing law schools in the current moment. In this moderated discussion, Law School Deans will share their thoughts on the current challenges our institutions are facing, and the roles we as law school professionals can play defending our students and our democratic values. Specific topics of conversation will include:
Workshop 2
No Plot Armor: Protecting Vulnerable Community Members
The current political moment in this country has so many of us worried for our students, our colleagues, our loved ones, and ourselves, leaving us wondering how we can do more for the people we care about. On campus, institutional policies and reactions often do little to assuage these concerns and sometimes constrain our abilities to effectively serve our communities. DEIB work is slandered and under direct attack in too many places, students and faculty remain targeted for pro-Palestinian advocacy, state and federal governments continue collecting information on trans individuals with nefarious intent, and fears of ICE hang over the day-to-day work. This session will feature a discussion on how – independent of institutional or state politics – law school professionals can equip themselves with valuable tools to support their students, colleagues and themselves on and off campus.
Workshop 3
Professional Development Pathways
One of the most valuable aspects of AMDiP each year is the community and expertise that everyone attending carries with them. There is so much we can learn from each other, and we always leave wanting more time to connect. In each of these two Professional Development Pathways – Individual and Institutional – attendees will have the opportunity to break into smaller discussion groups to share insights and experiences about areas relating to individual professional growth or collaborative institutional problem solving.
The Individual Pathway will focus on personal professional development, the individual journey, and empowering DEIB professionals to tell their own stories. Specific conversation areas will include:
The Institutional Pathway will focus on collective efforts to challenge the misconceptions about DEIB meaning and goals and working with colleagues to address institutional issues and conflict. Specific conversation areas for this pathway will include:
What does effective leadership look like at this moment?
Workshop 4
Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover: Storytelling in the Legal Profession
It may not always appear obvious at first glance, but storytelling and the law are deeply intertwined. Whether it’s the stories of individual clients a lawyer is representing, far-reaching Supreme Court decisions resulting from lengthy legal battles, or our own personal journeys informing our work, storytelling has profoundly affected the law throughout history – and the stories being lived today will shape the future of the profession and our society. What can we learn from our own stories or others’? Whose stories get told and whose don’t? In this panel you will hear from legal professionals who share how storytelling intersects with their work and what lessons can be gleaned from them.
Workshop 5
Hot Topics
Join us for these popular small-group discussions on important topics relating to anti-DEIB rhetoric, workplace resistance to progress, political struggles, freedom of speech, need for personal support or advice, advocating for students, new language, creative solutions, and more.