A future at the University of Denver

Three years ago I moved to Denver to begin a one-year position as a visiting professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. I expected to be able to compete for a tenure-track position that fall. For many reasons, that did not happen until this semester. I’m now thrilled to announce that I have accepted a tenure-track position at DU! It took longer than hoped, but I am now a full member of the faculty. To describe this news as significant would be a vast understatement. From my start here I have felt intellectually challenged and professionally supported at DU. Now I can call it my intellectual and professional home.

There is much happening at DU to be excited about. This month alone students have organized events about racial justice and volunteered at immigrants’ rights organizations. Along with my colleague Chris Lasch, I’m in the midst of hosting a year-long Crimmigration Law Lecture Series that follows on two years of crimmigration events. Most importantly, there exists the space and encouragement to do more.

So what’s next? To continue developing DU into an innovative center for teaching, research, and advocacy about crimmigration law. To be sure, I won’t be the only person shaping that future. Indeed, that’s part of what I love about DU. There are bound to be disagreements and I am certain to be outvoted time and again. But my three years as part of this institution have convinced me that I won’t be the only person who shares a deep commitment to the kind of intellectual work that the critical theorist bell hooks described as “life-enhancing.” An intellectual, she wrote in a 1991 essay, “is somebody who trades in ideas in their vital bearing on a wider political culture.” That is the work I’m excited to keep doing at DU Law.

Find this information helpful? Learn more from Crimmigration Law, César’s book.