The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law celebrated the investiture of Professor Chaz Arnett as the Jacob A. France Professor of Law with an investiture lecture on Oct. 9 and the Law and Justice Symposium on Oct. 10.
Attendees packed the Ceremonial Courtroom for the Thursday evening lecture event honoring Arnett, who is a leading advocate and scholar in the fields of criminal law, juvenile law, surveillance studies, race and the law, and law and technology.
Maryland Carey Law Dean Renée Hutchins Laurent offered opening remarks in which she welcomed attendees and discussed Arnett’s work. “Thank you,” said the dean, addressing Arnett directly, “for being a fearless voice in some of today’s most pressing conversations, for having a profound impact on our students, and for being a leader in our community.”
Arnett joined the Maryland Carey Law faculty in 2020 and teaches Criminal Procedure, Juvenile Law, Education Law, and his popular Race, Technology, and the Law Seminar. In her remarks, Laurent also shared a quotation from a student in one of Arnett’s courses: “Professor Arnett was amazing! Super passionate about this work and made everything interesting.”
Laurent was followed by Arnett’s longtime mentor Professor Dorothy A. Brown from Georgetown Law. Brown described Arnett as a “paradigm shifter,” pointing to his groundbreaking work in data capitalism. “Never has such leadership been more necessary,” she concluded.
Finally, Arnett took to the podium to deliver his investiture lecture, which began with an emotional telling of his days growing up in a low-income community in Baltimore where a close childhood friend was suspended and placed in juvenile detention for a minor drug offense at age 13.
“Our work reflects our experiences,” he said as he traced the evolution of his research, from his early exploration into police surveillance within the juvenile justice system to his work on data capitalism and more lately on AI’s role in the “permanence of racism.”
Arnett wrapped up his talk teasing an upcoming project around digital blackface and generative AI, and a future project growing out of his influential article, “Data is the New Cotton.”
The Thursday evening lecture was a prelude to the next day’s Law and Justice Symposium at Maryland Carey Law, which expanded on many of the themes from Arnett’s talk. The symposium, co-sponsored by the Gibson-Banks Center for Race and the Law, also served as the launch of Arnett’s Law and Justice Speaker Series, which will bring top advocates and scholars to the law school to engage with students and the broader community.
The symposium did just that. Speakers included an impressive array of experts from across the country in areas including technology and the law, race and the law, and criminal law and procedure, most of whom have collaborated in some way with Arnett throughout his career.
Kicking off the day, Laurent lauded Arnett’s initiative in bringing together scholars and advocates to engage with the law school community. “Collaborations like these are where a sense of purpose is reinvigorated,” she said, “where the spirit of community lightens the weight of seemingly intractable problems, and where solutions emerge.”
The morning panel, moderated by Assistant Professor Zina Makar ’14 from the University of Baltimore School of Law, explored race, tech, and the law. Panelists were Professor Jessica Eaglin from Cornell Law School, Associate Professor Ngozi Okidegbe from Boston University School of Law, Associate Professor Vincent Southerland from New York University School of Law, and Associate Professor Tamara Nopper from Rhode Island College.
A highlight of the day was the lunchtime discussion titled Policing Black Bodies, which featured the famed Professor Devon Carbado from NYU Law. Carbado was joined in conversation with Arnett and Maryland Carey Law Assistant Professor Omavi Shukur. Carbado is the author of Unreasonable: Black Lives, Police Power, and the Fourth Amendment and Acting White? Rethinking Race in “Post Racial” America.
Maryland Carey Law Professor Michael Pinard, faculty director for the Gibson-Banks Center, moderated the afternoon session, which offered critical perspectives on criminal law, education, practice, and administration. Panelists were Associate Professor Sean Hill from the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, Professor Irene Joe from the University of California Davis School of Law, Professor Shaun Ossei-Owusu from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, and Professor Kate Weisburd from the University of California College of Law, San Francisco.
Arnett joins distinguished Maryland Carey Law professors Peter Danchin, Don Gifford, David Gray, and Diane Hoffmann in holding the Jacob A. France Professorship. The Jacob A. France Professorships Endowment was established in 1983 by the directors of The Jacob and Annita France Foundation, Inc., now the France-Merrick Foundation, to honor Jacob A. France, a distinguished 1903 graduate of the law school. The fund supports five Jacob A. France Professorships at Maryland Carey Law.
Arnett’s scholarship has been published in the Georgetown Law Journal, the Ohio State Law Journal, the Cardozo Law Review, the UCLA Law Review, and Just Tech: Social Science Research Council, among other prestigious publications, and offers critical legal frameworks in challenging purportedly race-neutral laws and technologies. His most recent article, published last year in the Georgetown Law Journal, employs an Afrofuturistic lens to interrogate the function, utility, and harm of generative artificial intelligence (AI), which, he writes, “has been promoted as the latest tool toward a transhumanist future devoid of the trappings of humanity’s biggest flaws.”
As the symposium reflected, Arnett is a scholar committed to collaboration. In that spirit, he is an affiliate of the Gibson-Banks Center for Race and the Law at Maryland Carey Law and the Center for Critical Race & Digital Studies, a network of leading public scholars of color dedicated to examining the intersections of race and technology. He is also a faculty fellow at Data & Society, an independent nonprofit research organization that studies the social implications of data, automation, and AI.
Prior to joining the Maryland Carey Law faculty, Arnett was an assistant professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he was designated as a Distinguished Public Interest Professor for his commitment to furthering social justice in his teaching, scholarship, and service.
Before teaching, Arnett served as a trial attorney with public defender offices in Baltimore and New Orleans, and as a staff attorney with the Advancement Project, where he assisted in local and national campaigns aimed at combating the school-to-prison pipeline. As a recipient of the Satter Human Rights Fellowship, he also worked with the International Center for Transitional Justice on issues of constitutional development in Zimbabwe, and asylum cases for Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa.
He has received numerous awards and accolades for his commitment toward furthering human rights through criminal law work, including Baltimore City’s Dignity in Policing Impact Award this fall. Arnett earned his JD from Harvard Law and bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College.