{"id":5143,"date":"2026-08-01T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/?p=5143"},"modified":"2026-07-30T12:00:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T16:00:25","slug":"diversity-equity-and-inclusion-in-u-s-courts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/2026\/08\/01\/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-in-u-s-courts\/","title":{"rendered":"Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in U.S. Courts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Elizabeth Meehan, Class of 2029<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This summer I worked on multiple projects with Professor Means tied together by the common theme of emphasizing the importance of judicial diversity and restorative justice. Over the course of eight weeks I co-authored a journal article with Professor Means for the Louisiana Creole Research Association, worked as a research assistant at The Next Act <\/em>therapeutic theater arts program for Dutchess County youth, helped with planning the 2027 Jane Bolin Day <\/em>program, and organized potential spotlights for publicity for Professor Means\u2019s book, Robed Representatives: How Black Judges Advocate in American Courts. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of my research for La Creole, I reached out to Louisiana federal judges for interviews, speaking with them about judicial diversity and Creole representation on the federal bench. Further, I researched and wrote the literature review of the journal article on Louisiana Creole history and origins, and I highlighted how Creole judicial representation has been underrepresented. I also wrote and performed qualitative analysis of Creole judges\u2019 biographies and policy work\u2014underscoring the importance of the multifaceted background they bring to the bench. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working as a research assistant on The Next Act<\/em>, I interviewed previous staff to possible areas of improvement in the program, as well as to prepare for my own role. For the duration of the program, I observed and also participated in the theater activities, writing reflective notes on the students\u2019 progress. Each week I created a newsletter with highlights from the program to be sent home with the students for their parents\/guardians to see. I conducted interviews and administered surveys to the students to assess their progress in terms of comfortability, helpfulness, and self-confidence. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Some of the artwork created from The Next Act’s <\/em>young artists during a college-prep workshop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Through this project, I learned more about the academic processes of researching and writing. I enriched myself in the learnings of judicial representation and rehabilitative practices in the justice system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth Meehan, Class of 2029 This summer I worked on multiple projects with Professor Means tied together by the common theme of emphasizing the importance of judicial diversity and restorative justice. Over the course of eight weeks I co-authored a journal article with Professor Means for the Louisiana Creole Research Association, worked as a research […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12249,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77520],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ford-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12249"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5145,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5143\/revisions\/5145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}