Plenary Speakers

Olatunde C.A. Johnson is the Ruth Bader Ginzburg ’59 Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. Johnson’s research has helped shape the national conversation on modern civil rights legislation, anti-discrimination, fair housing, congressional power, and innovations to address discrimination and inequality.

Legal Frameworks and Strategies to Address Discrimination – Lessons from the Experience of Race in the United States

Manoj Mitta is a New Delhi-based journalist who has served as a senior editor at two of India’s leading newspapers, the Times of India and the Indian Express. His critically acclaimed book, Caste Pride: Battles for Equality in Hindu India, examines the endurance and violence of the caste system.

Rajesh Sampath is Associate Professor of the Philosophy of Justice, Rights, and Social Change at Brandeis University. Sampath is the Lead Investigator of the Program on Social Exclusion at the Heller School's Center for Global Development and Sustainability.

A New Constitutional Horizon to End Racism and Casteism

Sukhadeo Thorat is Professor Emeritus of Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Thorat is former chairman of the University Grants Commission and has worked endlessly on behalf of marginalized communities in India. He serves as Joint Editor-in-Chief of Caste: A Global Journal on Social Exclusion.

The Law of Caste in Ancient and Medieval India

Vasanthi Venkatesh is Associate Professor in Law, Land, and Local Economies at the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law. Her research examines how power and privilege is produced in legal doctrines and systems and how community-level acts of resistance can help to reimagine novel legal and political formations.

How Law Facilitates Structural Casteism