Nominations are being accepted for the 2015 Sheldon H. Nahmod Civil Rights Awards

Thursday, February 12, is the deadline for nominations for the 2015 Sheldon H. Nahmod Civil Rights Awards.

The awards, which were established in 2010 and named for IIT Chicago-Kent Distinguished Professor Sheldon H. Nahmod, honor leaders within Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) who are working positively to impact their communities and effect change. Eligibility is limited to current members of the IIT community — students, student organizations, IPROs, faculty, and staff. An awards ceremony will be held on February 25 from 3 to 5 p.m. in IIT's McCormick Tribune Campus Center at 33rd and State streets in Chicago.

The Sheldon H. Nahmod Awards will be given in three categories for projects/work within the12-month period between February 2014 and February 2015.

• The Social Action award recognizes outstanding commitment to the promotion of positive change and development that has a progressive impact on the community.
• The Social Justice award honors and spotlights those who continuously and effectively fight inequality within their schools and community.
• The Vision award is given to those who envision and work toward implementing change by breaking down barriers of race, class, gender, and sexuality in ways that promote unity through diversity.

Professor Sheldon H. Nahmod, a member of the IIT Chicago-Kent faculty since 1978, is a noted expert on constitutional law, civil rights and the law of Section 1983 of Title 42 of the United States Code, perhaps the most important federal civil rights/civil liberties statute ever enacted. For nearly three decades, Professor Nahmod has convened the Section 1983 Civil Rights Litigation Conference at IIT Chicago-Kent that brings scholars and practitioners together for a greater understanding of the law. Professor Nahmod has argued civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and many other federal courts. He lectures regularly on civil rights matters to federal judges and attorneys throughout the country and speaks to lay groups about constitutional law.

Previous Nahmod Award winners include IPRO students from IIT and Chicago's Gage Park High School for their project to create a memorial to the equal housing marches led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Chicago in 1966; and IIT Chicago-Kent's African-American (BLSA), Hispanic-Latino (HLLSA), Asian-Pacific American (APALSA) and South Asian (SALSA) law student associations for their work as a multiethnic coalition and for "continuing and selfless dedication to those in need in their communities and beyond." Other recipients include Maria R. Gonzalez (SOC‘14), co-founder of Undocumented Students and Allies (USA), for her work on immigration reform, and Blythe Buchholz (MS PSYCH ‘14) for her work on women's issues.

Founded in 1888, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, a private, Ph.D.-granting institution with programs in engineering, psychology, architecture, business, design and law.