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Abstract

This symposium, organized by the Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, explored several cutting-edge topics related to its over-arching theme, "Rhetoric & Relevance: An Investigation into the Present and Future of Feminist Legal Theory." When the journal editors invited me to provide a few opening remarks, they informed me that: the goal of this symposium is to have a series of discussions about current happenings in the field of feminist legal scholarship, so that we may start to answer the question, "What's next?" These discussions will take place in the form of panels that focus on particular areas of the law. The hope is that as the symposium progresses, the focused panels can shed light on larger patterns of development in feminist legal theory. The organizers of the event did a marvelous job in putting together exceptional panels of experts to discuss three distinct and ground-breaking areas within current feminist legal theory: cyber-privacy, intersex and transgender jurisprudence, and meanings of consent. "Rhetoric & Relevance: An Investigation into the Present and Future of Feminist Legal Theory" That is an incredibly broad and profound topic. I must admit that I was initially at a loss about how even to begin to scratch its surface with a few brief introductory remarks let alone come up with a crystal ball through which to divine the future. Thankfully, one of the conference organizers subsequently clarified that they would like me to lay the foundation for the symposium through the story of the founding of the Michigan Journal of Gender & Law itself. Therefore, I will reflect upon the creation of the journal and its subsequent contributions in order to help set the stage for the scholarship generated by the symposium's panelists. This background is especially pertinent to the topic of the symposium-investigating the present and future of feminist legal theory-in light of the adage that in order to understand where you are and to know where you are going, you must also know where you have been and understand the past.

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