Guinier is the first black female to become a tenured professor at Harvard Law School. She is also a civil rights activist and legal scholar and has published numerous books, most recently one entitled "The Miner's Canary: Rethinking Race and Power."
Guinier first came to the public's attention when President Clinton nominated her to be the first black woman to head the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.
However, due to attacks from conservatives on Guinier's views on democracy and voting, her name was withdrawn before a confirmation hearing could be held.
Guinier used the nomination debacle to examine the civil rights movement in the past, present and future in one of her books, "Lift Every Voice: Turning a Civil Rights Setback into a New Vision of Social Justice."
Guinier, who was introduced by President Tom Gerety and Associate Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought Martha Umphrey, compared the problems of coeducation to a miner's canary.
"The canary is sent into the cave because its small respiratory system detects toxic substances in the atmosphere before that of the miner," said Guinier, adding that miners don't try to fix the canary. Instead, they try to change the atmosphere in the cave.
Guinier believes that in regard to race and gender, people tend to see a problem with the canary, while she believes the problem is really with the atmosphere.
"Instead of changing the atmosphere of education, it's like we're trying to outfit the canary with a pint-sized gas mask," Guinier said, describing what she believes are ineffective means of augmenting the 'toxic environment' of higher education. "I try to encourage people to transform the atmosphere in the mine to benefit the canary and the miner," she added.
In the remainder of her speech, Guinier described the struggle for power as a game consisting of three dimensions and discussed how she saw the game played out in law school.
The first dimension of power is what Guinier calls the visible conflict-who wins and who loses. She talked about how male law students try to win the game through speed.
"They try to be the first to raise their hands and they don't think about what they're saying before they say it," said Guinier. "As a result, they learn valuable leadership skills, like holding the attention of an audience."
The men then become the "winners" of the law school game. This allows them to also control the second dimension of power, which is designing the game.
"Usually the designers can predict the outcome-they design the rules to give a preferred outcome," said Guinier.
The third dimension of power is the subtlest, according to Guinier.
"It is the story the winners tell the losers to convince both winners and losers that they deserve their lot in life," Guinier said. "The winners try to convince the losers that it is futile to resist."
As an example of this, Guinier talked about the claim law schools make that the Law School Aptitude Test (LSAT) predicts who will become the best lawyers. Given that men tend to have slightly higher LSAT scores, Guinier viewed this as the school's justification for the fact that men tend to do better once in law school. She sees this as another example of blaming the canary, or the women, for what is truly an atmospheric problem. However, she stated that it is the model of legal education that is at fault.
"Law schools are using a model of legal education that may have made sense a century ago, when most lawyers went to court and had to think on their feet," Guinier said. "Now, most lawyers work on teams to solve problems and most don't go to court."
As further evidence of this theory that it is not the women but the law school methodology that is the problem, Guinier cited statistics revealing a negative relationship between high LSAT scores and career satisfaction and leadership ability.
Guinier also discussed how she has changed the way she teaches to accommodate the new challenges law school graduates face when they graduate and begin their own careers in the changing legal world. Instead of relying on the traditional Socratic method in her law classes, Guinier attempts to foster a more discussion-based atmosphere.
Guiner described a student-proposed class she agreed to supervise while a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's law school, against the advice of the Dean. She found that, because the students had proposed the class, they were willing to experiment. The students came up with projects like re-enacting scenes from movies like "Thelma and Louise" from a feminist legal theorist point of view.
"Because of the shared power [in my classes], students deal with controversy in a way that everyone finds less threatening," Guinier said, describing the supportive nature of her classes.
Students seemed to react very positively to the speech and its message.
"I found her to be extremely intelligent," said Stacey Kennard '03. "She gave a really inspirational message about education. Hopefully, if others follow her legacy, then I think we can expect a lot of positive change."
"I think it was absolutely powerful," said Travis Bristol '03. "It was a powerful message that needed to be heard."