IN THEIR ELEMENT
Jennifer Gordon
IN THEIR ELEMENT
Photos by Chris Taggart
BY Elizabeth Moore
Professor Jennifer Gordon’s seventh-floor office is a tribute to her work on behalf of immigrants and refugees, including collectibles from her world travels to meet with immigrant workers. It is also a snapshot of the former MacArthur Fellow’s 21-year career at Fordham Law School, where she teaches courses on immigration, workers’ rights, and legislation and regulation, writes scholarship with a real-world impact, and holds the John D. Feerick Chair.
Gordon’s light-filled office overlooks Lincoln Center and creates a warm and inviting atmosphere, which she says often breaks the ice when students come to meet with her. “This is so calming,” she says of her office of 10 years. “I love this. It allows me to connect with people on a human level before we connect on a work level.”
GENIUS In a corner of her office, Gordon keeps the announcement of her MacArthur Fellowship, which she received in 1999. Gordon used the award, colloquially known as the “Genius Grant,” to write the book Suburban Sweatshops: The Fight for Immigrant Rights.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT A favorite photo pictures Gordon along with famed chef Alice Waters and labor leader Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association, when they spoke at Harvard University on a panel about food injustice.
GREEN THUMB Gordon has many plants in her office, almost all of them succulents. She says they thrive in the indirect light that comes in from her north-facing window that looks across Lincoln Center.
VITAMIN SEA Gordon is an avid traveler with a particular fondness for seaside destinations. She often brings back mementos she finds on the beach—collections of pebbles from a vacation on Vancouver Island last year and a tray of sea glass from a long-ago trip to Maine.
MEMENTO Before becoming a law professor, Gordon founded the Workplace Project, a nonprofit that fights for fair treatment of immigrant workers in New York. A small replica of the Statue of Liberty, given to her by a Colombian man who was a member of the organization, is a keepsake of her time there as executive director from 1992 to 1998.
LABOR LEADER Gordon’s huge collection of books spans many legal and policy themes. On a bookshelf with volumes about immigrant and workers’ rights, Gordon has collected six books about labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union.