Professor Pruitt to Co-direct Launch of Rural Poverty Research Program 

Professor Lisa R. Pruitt, together with Mary Louise Frampton of UC Berkeley School of Law, will coordinate a pilot project to strengthen and formalize the institutional commitment of UC Davis School of Law and UC Berkeley School of Law to address problems faced by some of California's most vulnerable rural communities, thanks in part to a grant from the University of California Center for Collaborative Research for an Equitable California.  The program will support the development of community-collaborative legal and policy research and advocacy for low-income rural communities in the San Joaquin Valley and elsewhere in California.

Goals of the program include cultivation of long-term partnerships with community associations and rural nonprofits; the training of students in community-based participatory research and methodologies that inform law and policy advocacy; and creating a multi-campus effort to support and invest in rural California.  Grant funding will support student researchers who will identify fundraising opportunities.  The students will also provide grant writing and community engagement support aimed at long-term growth in engagement between the UC Davis and UC Berkeley law schools and rural communities facing access-to-justice challenges.

Lisa R. Pruitt is a professor at UC Davis School of Law whose recent scholarship explores the legal relevance of rural spatiality, including how it inflects dimensions of gender, race, and ethnicity.  Pruitt's work also considers rural-urban difference in transnational and international contexts.

University of California Center for Collaborative Research for an Equitable California