In upcoming Race and Regulation Series lecture, Ming Hsu Chen will explore the relationship between race, citizenship, and political inequality

On March 23, as part of the 2021-2022 Lecture Series on Race and Regulation, Ming Hsu Chen, a visiting professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law, will discuss the relationship between race, citizenship, and political inequality.

Chen will discuss her research on the regulatory barriers that prevent Asian and Latinx communities from participating equally in the American political process, such as voter identification laws and restrictions on noncitizen political participation, as well as proposals to contract political representation of noncitizens in Congress and state legislatures. Ultimately, she shows how regulations instead could bolster equality in politics for Asian and Latinx communities while also transforming electoral outcomes and enhancing substantive democracy.

Chen holds appointments in law, political science, and ethnic studies at the University of Colorado and brings an interdisciplinary perspective to the study of race, immigration, and administrative law. At the University of Colorado, she is also the founding Faculty Director of the Immigration and Citizenship Law Program.

The Race and Regulation Lecture Series is organized by the Penn Program on Regulation (PPR) and co-sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s Office of Equity and Inclusion as part of the “Achieving Racial Justice” colloquium launched in 2020. Chen’s lecture also is co-sponsored by Penn’s Asian American Studies Program, Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies, and Center for the Study of Ethnicity, Race, and Immigration.

The lecture series examines how government regulation has contributed to racial inequities and how regulatory policy changes can help dismantle racist structures in society.

The final lecture in the spring series will be held April 5, when Daniel E. Ho, William Benjamin Scott and Luna M. Scott Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at Stanford Law, presents his lecture, “Administrative Law’s Racial Blind Spot.”

Chen will deliver “Race, Citizenship, and Political Inequality” on Wednesday, March 23 from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET via Zoom. All Race and Regulation lectures are free and open to the public.

For videos of previous Race and Regulation lectures, visit the PPR’s YouTube channel for a playlist of the recordings.

Register for Chen’s webinar.

Learn more about all of PPR’s upcoming events.