Elvia R. Arriola
Professor of Law
B.A., California State University, Los Angeles
J.D., University of California, Berkeley
M.A., New York University
Email: earriola@niu.edu
Phone: (815) 753-7251
Room: 197C
Biography
Professor Arriola joined NIU Law in 2001 and teaches Constitutional Law, Gender, Sexuality and the Law, Civil Rights Litigation, Family Law and a research and writing seminar, Women, Law and the Global Economy.
Raised in a large Mexican immigrant family in Southern California, Arriola attended Catholic schools in Los Angeles and in Mexico before pursuing a college education through the California state university system. She attained her law degree from the University of California-Berkeley School of Law and began her legal career in New York City on a fellowship with the national offices of the American Civil Liberties Union. At the ACLU her involvement in the re-opening of the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education inspired her to pursue a Master’s Degree in History at New York University.
Professor Arriola’s experiences at the ACLU led her into teaching first as a writing instructor and civil rights litigation as a member of the NY Attorney General’s Civil Rights Division where she litigated a sex discrimination class action and drafted amicus briefs on varied civil rights cases pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. These experiences influenced her first law teaching experiences at the University of Texas at Austin where she taught civil rights litigation, employment and family law, and sexuality and the law. Her publications range widely on the subjects that deal with civil rights, feminist and queer legal theory, gender and human rights and globalization of the economy. She owes her most recent research and scholarship interests to the influence of the "LatCrit" scholarly movement begun in 1995-96. Arriola is also Executive Director of an education nonprofit, Women on the Border, dedicated to advancing awareness of the impact of free trade law and policy on women and families who work for American companies at the U.S.-Mexico border known as "maquiladoras."
Books and Chapters
- LatCrit Theory, Int'l Human Rights, Popular Culture and the Faces of Despair in INS Raids, reprinted in The Latino Condition: A Critical Reader (Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic eds., 1998) and in A Reader on Race, Civil Rights and American Law: A Multiracial Approach (Timothy Davis, Kevin R. Johnson & George A. Martinez eds., 2001).
- Gendered Inequality: Lesbians, Gays, and Feminist Legal Theory, reprinted in Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge (Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic eds., 2000) and in The Latino Condition: A Critical Reader (Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic eds., 1998).
- Law and the Gendered Politics of Identity: Who Owns the Label "Lesbian"?, reprinted in Katherine Bartlett & Angela Harris, Gender and Law: Theory, Doctrine, Commentary (1998).
- "What's the Big Deal?": Women in the New York City Construction Industry and Sexual Harassment Law, reprinted in Applications of Feminist Legal Theory to Women's Lives: Sex, Work and Reproduction (D. Kelly Weisberg ed., 1996) and in Law and Violence Against Women: Cases and Materials on Systems of Oppression (Mary Louise Fellows & Beverly Balos eds. 1994).
- Feminism and Free Expression: Silence and Voice, Freeing the First Amendment: Critical Perspectives on Freedom of Expression 195-223 (with Robert Jensen) (Robert Jensen & David Allen eds., 1995).
- "Sexual Identity and the Constitution, Homosexual Persons as a Discrete and Insular Minority, reprinted in Special Issue: The Best of the Women's Rights Law Reporter Rutgers Women's Rights Law Review (1992) and in 13 Studies in Homosexuality (Wayne R. Dynes ed. 1991).
Articles
- Sociocultural Consequences of Free Trade: Accountability for Murder in the Maquiladoras: Linking Corporate Indifference to Gender Violence at the U.S.-Mexico Border, 5 Seattle J. Soc. Just. 603 (Spring/Summer 2007).
| Lexis*| | Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- Encuentro En El Ambiente De La Teoria: Latina Lesbians and Ruthann Robson's Lesbian Legal Theory, 8 N.Y. City L. Rev. 519 (2005).
| Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- Democracy and Dissent: Challenging the Solomon Amendment as a Cultural Threat to Academic Freedom and Civil Rights, 24 St. Louis U. Pub. L. Rev. 149 (2005).
| Lexis *| | Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- Coffeehouse Musings on Post-Grutter Ironies: Promoting Diversity to Ensure Globalization, 7 Scholar: St. Mary's L. Rev. on Minority Issues 3 (2004).
| Lexis*| |Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- Tenure Politics and the Feminist Scholar, 12 Colum. J. Gender & L. 532 (2003).
| Lexis*| | Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- Staying Empowered by Recognizing our Common Grounds: A Reply to Subordination and Symbiosis: Mechanisms of Mutual Support Between Subordinating Systems by Professor Nancy Ehrenreich, 71 U.M.K.C. L. Rev. 447 (2002).
| Lexis*| |Westlaw*| |Hein On-line*|
- Maquila Zoned Out in Reports from the Field, 1 Latino Studies 188 (2003) (Poem).
- Queering the Painted Ladies: Gender, Race, Class and Sexual Identity at the Mexico Border in the Case of the Two Paulas, 1 Seattle J. Soc. Just. 679 (2003).
| Lexis*| | Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- Introductory Remarks: Comparative and Co-Constituent Construction of Identities, 55 Fla. L. Rev. 413 (2003) (6th Annual Latino/a Critical Legal Theory Conference).
| Lexis*| | Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- Talking About Power and Pedagogy, Introduction for Cluster: "LatCrit Theory in New Contexts," 78 Denv. U. L. Rev. 507 (2001) (5th Annual Latina/o Critical Legal Theory Conference).
| Lexis*| | Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- Of Woman Born: Courage and Strength to Survive in the Maquiladoras of Reynosa and Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas, Frontera-Norte-Sur (April 2001) http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/apr01/
- Looking Out from a Cardboard Box: Workers and Their Families in the Maquiladora Industry of Ciudad Acuña. Coahuila. Frontera-Norte-Sur (December 2000) , http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera reprinted in National Lawyer's Guild Practicioner (2001)
- Becoming Leaders: The Women in the Maquiladoras of Piedras Negras, Coahuila: Frontera-Norte-Sur (October 2000), http://www. nmsu.edu/~frontera/oct00/feat5.html
- Voices from the Barbed Wires of Despair: Women in the Maquiladoras, Latina Critical Legal Theory and Gender at the U.S.-Mexico Border, 49 DePaul L. Rev. 729 (2000).
| Lexis*| | Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- Introduction: The Value of Our Work, 53 U. Miami L. Rev. 1037 (1999).
| Lexis*| | Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- Wildly Different: Antigay Peer Harassment in Public Schools, 1 Geo. J. Gender & L. 5 (1999).
| Hein On-line*|
- Coming Home to a Latina Lesbian Self-Race and Sexual Orientation in Legal Scholarship, http://www.sunsite.unc.edu/gaylaw .
- The Penalties for Puppy Love: Institutionalized Violence Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Youth, 2 J. Gender Race & Just. 430 (1998).
| Lexis*| | Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- Foreword: March! - Second Annual Symposium on Latina/o Critical Legal Theory, 19 Chicano-Latino L. Rev. 1 (1998).
| Lexis*| | Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- Getting Possessive About the Term "Lesbian," Proceedings of the Fifth Annual International Conference on Transgender Law & Employment Policy (1998).
- Law and the Gendered Politics of Identity: Who Owns the Label "Lesbian"?, 8 Hastings Women's L.J. 1 (1997).
| Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- LatCrit Theory, Int'l Human Rights, Popular Culture and the Faces of Despair in INS Raids, 28 U. Miami Inter-Am. L. Rev. 245 (1997).
| Lexis*| | Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- Welcoming the Outsider to an Outsider Conference: Law and the Multiplicities of Self, 2 Harv. Latino L. Rev. 397 (1997).
| Lexis*| | Hein On-line*|
- Law and the Family of Choice and Need, 35 U. Louisville J. Fam. L. 691 (1997).
| Lexis*| | Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- Faeries, Marimachas, Queens and Lezzies: The Construction of Homosexuality Before the 1969 Stonewall Riots, 5 Colum. J. Gender & L. 33 (1995).
| Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- Gendered Inequality: Lesbians, Gays, and Feminist Legal Theory, 9 Berkeley Women's L.J. 103 (1994).
| Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- Coming Out and Coming to Terms with Sexual Identity, 68 Tul. L. Rev. 283 (1993) (book reviews).
| Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- "What's the Big Deal?" Women in the New York City Construction Industry and Sexual Harassment Law, 1970-1985, 22 Colum. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 21 (1990).
| Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
- Sexual Identity and the Constitution: Homosexual Persons as a Discrete and Insular Minority, 14 Women's Rts. L. Rep. 263 (1988).
| Westlaw*| | Hein On-line*|
* must be a subscriber to access
Areas of Expertise:
Feminist Legal Theory, Queer Legal Theory, Critical Race Theory, Women and Globalization
