Professor | Scholar | Lawyer
Karla McKanders
About
Karla McKanders is a Clinical Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School where she directs the Immigration Practice Clinic and teaches Immigration and Refugee Law. In the fall 2020, she was appointed the Associate Director of the Legal Clinic at Vanderbilt. Her advocacy and research has taken her around the US and abroad researching the efficacy of legal institutions charged with processing migrants and refugees. In December 2018, she traveled with her students to Tijuana, Mexico to assist asylum seekers at the border. In 2011, she received a Fulbright Award to lecture at the University of Mohammad V in Rabat, Morocco. In 2019 she edited a volume Arabs at Home and in the World: Human Rights, Gender Politics, and Identity (Karla McKanders ed., 1st ed. 2018) with colleagues from Palestine, Morocco and the United States.
McKanders received her Masters in Theological Studies in December 2021 from Vanderbilt Divinity School where she studied Spirituality and Activism and was a Public Theology & Racial Justice Fellow. She received her J.D. from Duke University School of Law in 2003, and her B.A. in Political Science and Minor in French from Spelman College in 2000. She clerked for the Honorable Damon J. Keith on the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals from 2005 - 2006.
Upcoming
Speaking Engagements
Teaching Justice Webinar Session: Teaching Justice Through Critical Race Theory, February 24, 2022. The Teaching Justice Through Critical Race Theory webinar is part of CLEA's Teaching Justice Webinar Series. This webinar is taught by Karla McKanders of Vanderbilt Law.
Interviews
Ali talks to Professor Karla McKanders, who directs the Immigration Practice Clinic at Vanderbilt Law School. She also teaches refugee and immigration law. She has written about the intersection of immigration and Blackness, and is releasing a children’s book on the issue soon.
Professor McKanders and Ali spoke about the experiences of Black immigrants at the border, how segregation and policing impact Black and immigrant communities, and the need for nuance in our legal systems.
Episode Info: Prof. Karla McKanders of Vanderbilt Law joins Jared to talk about Trump Administration immigration policy and recent raids around the country, carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Host: Jared Rizzi
Publications
Gender, Islamophobia and Refugee Exceptionalism in Arabs at Home and in the World: Human Rights, Gender Politics, and Identity (Karla McKanders ed., 1st ed. 2019)
Karla McKanders, Morocco at the Crossroads the Intersection of Race, Gender, and Refugee Status in Women and Social Change in North Africa: What Counts as Revolutionary? Ch. 8 (Doris Gray and Nadia Sonneveld, eds.)(Cambridge University Press 2017).
Legal Commentary
ABA Human Rights Journal, Immigration and Blackness: What’s Race Got to Do With It? May 2019. Blacks immigrating to the United States continue to be detained and deported at a higher rate than any other immigrant group. McKanders examines how recent immigration policies perpetuate discrimination and oppression, particularly for African immigrants.
The Conversation, The Supreme Court and Refugees at the Southern Border: 5 questions answered, October 7, 2019. In 2018, I traveled to Tijuana, with law students from the Vanderbilt University Law School Immigration Practice Clinic. We volunteered at the Tijuana border with the Al Otro Lado. On the trip, I witnessed the contradictions between human rights protections in the Refugee Convention and how the asylum system was operating in practice.
Karla McKanders, Clinical Professor of Law
Vanderbilt University Law School
Nashville, TN 37203 USA
-
RT @ABA_Immigration: Please join us in welcoming ProBAR's new Director, Laura Peña! ProBAR's growing team is excited for this new chapte… https://t.co/81r47MaH7N -
March 2 -screening short film, "When Pedro Pan Came to Nashville," at 7:30 p.m. @Belcourt. Discussion after Prof. K… https://t.co/uFDXoiZoiY