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Returning to her alma mater as an assistant professor of law, Kaori Kenmotsu \u201922 brings to Mitchell Hamline a breadth of experience in the worlds of dance, theater, yoga, public policy, community organizing, teaching, and now law. For Kenmotsu, however, it\u2019s all connected.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing into it late in my career, law was another piece in my puzzle to an interdisciplinary approach,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her early career as an economic development organizer in South Minneapolis profoundly shaped how she thought about difference and community. Being an arts educator working with youth across different backgrounds taught her to be centered and present while meeting her students where they were. Being a program director for a grant-making agency helped hone her writing strengths. And her skills as a performing artist allowed her to inhabit a mindful and creative perspective.<\/p>\n
Kenmotsu\u2019s position is one of six being added to the faculty in 2024-25 at Mitchell Hamline. This year, she will be teaching courses on negotiation and client counseling within the Dispute Resolution Institute.<\/p>\n
In 2002, Kenmotsu began working at Hamline University as an adjunct faculty member in the theater and dance department, becoming a senior lecturer in 2007. \u201cI\u2019ve been in academia for 20-something years and have never really stayed in my lane,\u201d she said. While teaching classes, Kenmotsu also started Hamline\u2019s dance program, produced theater shows, served as faculty-affiliate in the leadership program, and developed courses in conflict studies, serving as co-director of the conflict studies program for several years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very excited to see the intersection of law with all these fields,\u201d she said. Her work has centered around creating community and understanding how people situate themselves in their body, two focuses which will be integral to her approach to teaching law and negotiation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always in conflict,\u201d she said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s on a societal level, organizational, interpersonal, or intra<\/em>personal\u2014happening within ourselves\u2014we are always going to have conflict. How we\u2019re going to create change and see the perspective of someone else without losing who we are\u2014that\u2019s what\u2019s really fascinating about conflict negotiation.\u201d<\/p>\n Kenmotsu initially came to Mitchell Hamline to earn her conflict resolution certificate, and along the way figured she might as well get her J.D.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first started law school, I realized culturally, as an Asian American woman, my approach to law had a very circular flow to it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was challenging because I thought I was approaching law wrong, but I learned there are many individuals in law school who think like me. I want to create pedagogy that honors different ways of thinking and being.\u201d<\/p>\n For Kenmotsu, this means bringing skills from her arts background into the law classroom, from the problem-solving component of creative thinking to her training in Laban Movement Analysis (LMA). A framework to analyze body language, LMA uses cues to assess and contextualize a situation. \u201cWe do it so instinctively in the arts,\u201d she said, \u201cbut it feels missing in the legal field. What does it feel like to be embodied when you\u2019re with a client or in the courtroom?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m especially interested in how the body is situated in conflict negotiation resolution\u2014how conflict lands on the body and how we wear it as trauma, as personality, as behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n Kenmotsu said she is excited to be surrounded by the diverse array of students emblematic of Mitchell Hamline. \u201cWhat I love about this community is that in every student I encounter, there is such a wealth of life experience. There\u2019s something about that diversity of student population that I\u2019m mindful of and that I find so incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Returning to her alma mater as an assistant professor of law, Kaori Kenmotsu \u201922 brings to Mitchell Hamline a breadth of experience in the worlds of dance, theater, yoga, public policy, community organizing, teaching, and now law. For Kenmotsu, however, it\u2019s all connected. \u201cComing into it late in my career, law was another piece in … <\/p>\n