KGRI Lecture Series: "Leading Social Change - Lessons on How to Win from the US Freedom to Marry Campaign" (Mar.9, 2018)
2018.02.23The Keio University Global Research Institute (KGRI) aims to promote international research and educational exchange and invites those working in the forefront of research and education in Japan and overseas to give lectures.
On this occasion, Mr. Evan Wolfson, one of the most world-leading lawyer, will give a lecture on how lawyers and citizens take parts in social change campaign for advancement of minorities including LGBT people.
Date & time: 14:30-16:30 (Open 14:00), March 9 (Fri.), 2018
Venue: North Hall, Keio University Mita Campus
Sponsored by: Keio University Global Research Institute (KGRI)
Co-sponsored by: LLAN (Lawyers for LGBT & Allies Network）
Language: English (No simultaneous interpretation provided.)
No admission fee, Pre-registration not required, Open to anyone.
Biography :
Evan Wolfson was founder and president of Freedom to Marry, the campaign that won marriage in the United States, and is widely considered the architect of the movement that led to nationwide victory in 2015. In 1983, Wolfson wrote his Harvard Law School thesis on gay people and the freedom to marry. During the 1990's he served as co-counsel in the historic Hawaii marriage case that launched the ongoing global movement for the freedom to marry, and has participated in numerous gay rights and HIV/AIDS cases. Wolfson earned a B.A. in history from Yale College in 1978; served as a Peace Corps volunteer in a village in Togo, West Africa; and wrote the book, Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People's Right to Marry, published by Simon & Schuster in July 2004. Citing his national leadership on marriage and his appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court in Boy Scouts of America v. James Dale, the National Law Journal in 2000 named Wolfson one of "the 100 most influential lawyers in America." Newsweek/The Daily Beast dubbed Wolfson "the godfather of gay marriage" and Time Magazine named him one of "the 100 most influential people in the world." In 2012, Wolfson received the Barnard Medal of Distinction alongside President Barack Obama.
Having achieved in 2015 the goal he had pursued for 32 years, Wolfson now devotes his time to advising and assisting diverse movements and causes in the U.S. and around the world eager to adapt the model and apply the lessons that made the Freedom to Marry campaign so successful. Based in New York City, Wolfson has been named a Distinguished Visitor from Practice at Georgetown Law Center, where he teaches law and social change; a Distinguished Practitioner in Grand Strategy at Yale University; and Senior Counsel at Dentons, the world's largest law firm, with 125+ offices in 50+ countries.
http://freedomtomarry.org/the-team/entry/Evan-Wolfson
Poster
Inquiries
Keio University Global Research Institute (KGRI)
E-mail: kgri@info.keio.ac.jp
