USC Gould School of Law is seeking an adjunct lecturer to teach an undergraduate law class, Law, Slavery, and Race for the spring 2024 semester, from January 8 to April 26, 2024 (final exam period from Wed-Wed, May 1-8). The class is scheduled to be held on campus on Mondays and Wednesdays from 12:00PM to 1:50PM.

Candidates should have strong legal professional backgrounds, with experience in the subject matter and preferably teaching experience. The course will be taught exclusively to enrolled undergraduate students. A PhD or Juris Doctor degree is required.

Law, Slavery, and Race (4 units)

This course will explore the interaction of law, slavery, and race in the United States, as well as from a comparative perspective.  Students will study the way law, politics and culture interacted to shape the institution of slavery and the development of modern conceptions of race. Reading materials may include original documents, excerpts of trial transcripts, appellate opinions, treatises, codes, and first-person narratives.

This course aims to teach students legal and historical approaches to analyzing important social problems. Students will learn the history of slavery in the United States and the Atlantic world; understand how ideas about race developed through legal and cultural practices; analyze texts on the topics of law, slavery, and race; and explore the connections between slavery in the past and regimes of racial inequality in the present. Students will learn to read legal materials, which may include trial records, appellate judicial opinions, and statutes, and to use those sources as evidence for legal and historical arguments.

This class may be postponed to a later semester if there are fewer than 6 students enrolled.

Undergraduate Academic Calendar for Spring 2024:

Classes Begin                                Mon, January 8

Martin Luther King’s Birthday      Mon, January 15

President’s Day                              Mon, February 19

Spring Recess                                Sun-Sun, March 10-17

Classes End                                    Fri, April 26

Study Days                                      Sat-Tue, April 27-30

Exams                                              Wed-Wed, May 1-8

Final Grading Deadline                  TBD

USC reserves the “Adjunct” appointment for faculty teaching less than full-time at USC, who are employed full-time in a primary profession or career elsewhere. Adjunct faculty typically teach only one course per year but, in exceptional cases, may teach one course per semester, if approved by the dean.

The base salary range for this position is $2,232 - $12,250 per semester. When extending an offer of employment, the University of Southern California considers factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the number of units per course, the candidate’s work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, federal, state and local laws, contractual stipulations, grant funding, as well as external market and organizational considerations.

Equity, diversity, inclusion, opportunity, and access are of central importance to the Gould School of Law. Gould holds a unique position in society, and within the university, as every aspect of these principles is influenced by and can be protected through legal rules and institutions. At Gould, we are proudly committed to maintaining a community in which each person respects the rights of others to live, work, and learn in peace and dignity, to be proud of who and what they are, and to have equal opportunity to realize their full potential as individuals and members of society.