Join us for the next FOCUS Speaker Series event in Robertson Hall, Arthur Lewis Auditorium at 4:30 pm on Thursday, March 30, 2023. In collaboration with the School of Public and International Affairs, ODUS will feature Judge Zahid Nisar Quraishi in conversation with Professor Udi Ofer of the SPIA department.
Details

Illustration by Keyon Woods
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FOCUS is an interdisciplinary initiative sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students designed to bring anti-racist scholarship, thought, and action to every part of university life. The name and mission of FOCUS were inspired by the words of Toni Morrison, the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities, Emeritus, and the recipient of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Zahid Nisar Quraishi is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and a former United States magistrate judge of the same court. Upon being nominated by President Joe Biden and receiving his judicial commission in 2021, he became the first Muslim-American to serve on a federal district court as an Article III judge. Before becoming a judge, he previously served as federal prosecutor in the US Attorney's office, and as a judge advocate in the US Army. Quraishi was an attorney at Riker Danzig LLP and was a partner at the firm from 2016–2019. Quraishi also taught courses on trial presentation at Rutgers Law School in the fall of 2020 and spring of 2021, as well as Seton Hall Law School in fall of 2022.
Udi Ofer is the James L. Weinberg Visiting Professor and Lecturer in SPIA, teaching courses on civil rights, policing, criminal justice reform, policymaking, and movement building. Professor Ofer was an attorney at the ACLU for 20 years prior to joining Princeton University. He is also the founding director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic and chair of the International Advisory Council of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. The themes of their conversation will include public service, law, representation, and diversity in the judiciary and court.
The event is free and open to the public, and attendees will have an opportunity to engage in question and answer with judge Quraishi and professor Ofer.
For more information about this event, please email [email protected] or call 609-258-5750.
- Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students
- School of Public and International Affairs