If these blackboards could talk 2: The Fem-Crit classroom

In this article, I explain how I came to redefine my teaching philosophy as Fem-Crit to ensure that I train students in gender-conscious lawyering. First, I discuss how even though Crits' and Feminists' pedagogical approaches focus on breaking down hierarchies in the law, Crit pedagogies can remain male-constructed and privileged, especially for cis-man professors like myself. Recognizing these shortcomings, I highlight the importance of labeling my teaching as Fem-Crit as a self-accountability measure. Departing from this understanding, I revisit my conclusion from a previous article that the law school classroom should be a battlefield and recognize that a Fem-Crit formulation of the classroom encompasses more than conflict and it also includes meeting conflict with anti-subordination responses. I follow with my reflections on the challenges, methods, and experiences in socializing students to become Fem-Crit lawyers. In that part, I discuss how each of the tenets that I had previously identified as core components of a Crit classroom should look for a Fem-Crit professor. I conclude my reflection by sharing how Fem-Crit pedagogy has led me to believe that this didactic practice ultimately entails bringing activism into the classroom and the classroom into activism.