The Journal of Gender, Race & Justice has a history as interesting as the ideas it explores.  Like many great ideas, the Journal began during a discussion among friends.  These individuals were first-year students just starting their law school journey.  They noted the need for a women’s law journal at the University of Iowa College of Law.  After meeting with Professor Pat Cain, the Journal’s first advisor, the organizational staff put the word out to their fellow students that a new law journal was being formed.  In January 1995, more than forty people showed their interest at an organizational meeting—forty people with diverse ideas and opinions.  

As the Journal began to take shape, so did its goals—dialogue, freely given and respectively heard, focusing on race, sex, class, religion, and other subjects.  The Journal name soon evolved, but not without debate.  Many passionate participants wanted more in the Journal name and advocated to include sexual orientation and class.  Instead, the word “Justice” was inserted to include these concepts and other unnamed ideas.  Our annual Symposium ensures that the ideas encompassed in the Journal name will be fully explored for years to come.  

In defying the established and questioning the accepted, the Journal has created conflict from its creation.  We hope that this conflict leads to discussion, but also that it functions as a reminder to see the injustice in the world and to speak up.