Wrestling with Diversity-PB

In contemporary academic and legal discourse, the term""diversity"" has become such a floating signifier that the word can be taken to mean virtually anything. Levinson is well aware that the term's soggy genealogy must be complicated if diversity is to become praxis rather than mere theory. His thoughtful treatise concerns itself primarily with the way in which debates about diversity have ignored religious practice in favor of race and ethnicity. An endowed chair of the University of Texas School of Law, Levinson dwells on the contentious legal battles over affirmative action, a topic over which his own school has seen considerable litigation. Levinson offers a principled defense of diversifying universities, basing his arguments on John Stuart Mill's foundational text On Liberty. However, his reliance on such works of classical liberal philosophy may sometimes undermine his otherwise cogent arguments for bringing religion into a heretofore secular discussion. In the book's most compelling chapter,""Identifying the Jewish Lawyer,"" the author discusses how identity is constructed by both culture and religion, and vice versa. Levinson's quiet insistence on bringing religion into our definition of diversity is a critical gesture that is particularly welcome coming from a legal scholar. For, as the recent Supreme Court decision regarding affirmative action made clear, the definition of such ambiguous terms will ultimately be codified in the courtroom.