Today Boston University School of Law hosts the Eighth Annual Nonmarriage Roundtable, organized by Albertina Antognini (Loyola LA), Aníbal Rosario Lebrón (Rutgers), Cynthia Godsoe (Brooklyn), Kaipo Matsumura (Loyola LA), Linda McClean (Boston University) & Naomi Cahn (University of Virginia). Here’s an overview of the sessions and papers:
10:00 – 11:45 a.m. Concurrent Session 1
In the Shadow of Marriage
- Emily Stolzenberg – What is Marriage Now — and What Does that Mean for Nonmarriage?
- Yun (Nancy) Tang – Creating “Marriage-Lite” Kinship Under Marriage Inequality in East Asia
- Jessica Tueller – A Human Rights Approach to Disincentivizing Divorce
- Allison Tait & Linda McClain – Topographies of Nonmarriage: Susan Glaspell’s Fidelity and Willa Cather’s The Song of the Lark
Commentator: Michal Buchhandler-Raphael
Shifting Theoretical Frames: Nonmarriage, Care & Labor
- Chao–Ju Chen – The Feminist Paradox of Family-friendly Policies
- Barbara Stark – Nonmarriage at the End of the U.S- Backed International Order and the Emergence of the New Global Right
- Suzanne Kim – Privatizing Care: Feminism, Marital Privilege, and the Political Economy of Family Labor
- Kim Craig – Chinese Boogeyman: Unmarried Men, Masculinity, and Moral Failure
Commentator: Kate Silbaugh
Relational Boundaries Through Marriage Ideology
- Kaipo Matsumura – American Alchemy: Mixed Families and the Japanese American Internment
- Marcia Zug – The Non-Marriage “Marriage”
- E.T. Stone – Artificial Companionship
Commentator: Sania Anwar
1:00 – 2:20 p.m. Concurrent Session 2
Nonmarital Parentage: Family Status & Recognition
- Doug NeJaime & Courtney Joslin – Parentage’s History and Tradition
- Pam Quinn – Sanctioning Families
- Tania Valdez & Janice Valdez – Inherited Injustice: The Generational Impact of Virginia’s Racialized Bastardy Laws
Commentator: Sania Anwar
Family Policing: State Surveillance & Punishment
- Cynthia Godsoe & Shanta Trivedi – The Right Not to Parent
- Neoshia Roemer – Family Policing as Entertainment
- Carla Spivack – Dobbs, Birth, and Moments of Infinite Possibility
Commentator: Michal Buchhandler-Raphael
Wealth Transfer Beyond Marriage
- Bridget Crawford – Can You Leave Your Estate to Your AI Boyfriend?
- MJ Hernandez – Delta Death Disadvantages: Inequities in Cohabitant Estate Protections in Louisiana and Mississippi
- Eliot Tracz – Cohabitation, Nonmarriage, and Intestacy
Commentator: Clare Huntington
2:30 – 4:15 p.m. Concurrent Session 3
Against Channeling: Kinship Beyond Marriage & Biology
- Akshat Agarwal – Parents as Social Facts
- Swethaa Ballakrishnen – Queer Kin: Community Buffering, Intimate Prefiguration, and Benevolent Blasé
- Elly Kugler – Affordable Housing – By and For Everyone
- Anibal Rosario Lebrón – Siblinghood Beyond Marriage & Parenthood: Rethinking Family Formation
Commentator: Clare Huntington
Distributional Justice in Nonmarriage
- Erez Aloni – Architectures of Nonmarriage
- June Carbone & Brian Bix – Inequality in Family Law
- D Dangaran & Benjamin Nadelstein – Smart Contracts in Family Law
- Jennifer Hendricks – The Seven-Year Stitch
Commentator: Kate Silbaugh
Reconceiving Reproductive Autonomy Beyond Marriage & Biology
- Aziza Ahmed – Two Frames: Pronatalism and the Right to Abortion
- Albertinamyw Antognini – When Biology Matters
- Susan Appleton – Pregnancy Law & Trans Law: Non-normative Bodies in Search of Equality
- Naomi Cahn & Sonia Suter – IVG in a Post-Dobbs/Skrmetti World: Parentage and Pronatalism
Commentator: Michal Buchhandler-Raphael
The organizers built in several breaks to facilitate informal conversations throughout the day. Papers were available in advance, with everyone expected to read the papers for the sessions they committed to attend. It’s a very effective format!