Patricia J. Williams

Columnist

Patricia J. Williams, a professor of law at Columbia University, was born in Boston in 1951 and holds a BA from Wellesley College and a JD from Harvard Law School.

She was a fellow in the School of Criticism and Theory at Dartmouth College and has been an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin School Law School and its department of women's studies. Williams also worked as a consumer advocate in the office of the City Attorney in Los Angeles.

A member of the State Bar of California and the Federal Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Williams has served on the advisory council for the Medgar Evers Center for Law and Social Justice of the City University of New York and on the board of governors for the Society of American Law Teachers, among others.

Her publications include Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave, On Being the Object of Property, The Electronic Transformation of Law and And We Are Not Married: A Journal of Musings on Legal Language and the Ideology of Style. In 1993, Harvard University Press published Williams's The Alchemy of Race & Rights to widespread critical acclaim. She is also author of The Rooster's Egg (Harvard, 1995), Seeing a Color-Blind Future: The Paradox of Race (Reith Lectures, 1997) (Noonday Press, 1998) and, most recently, Open House: On Family Food, Friends, Piano Lessons and The Search for a Room of My Own (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2004.)

Articles

Grim Fairy Tales (Death Penalty, Youth, Society)

It seemed too bizarre to be anything but apocryphal, but, hey, I heard it on NPR: William Poole, a high school junior from Kentucky, was taken into custody and charged with threatening to commit

Patricia J. Williams

Playing by the Numbers (Law)

My friend L., a magistrate in Britain, is appalled by American-style
sentencing, which has taken hold there recently.

Patricia J. Williams

Power and the Word (Class, Higher Education, Media, Society)

A few weeks ago, if you recall, Britain's Prince Harry was having himself a high old time at a Colonials and Natives party to which he came costumed as a Nazi officer.

Patricia J. Williams

Shrieking Violets (Higher Education, Society)

There I was, in the basement of the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta, enjoying a private tour of the place.

Patricia J. Williams

Letter

NORTHERN EXPOSURE

Toronto

Scott Sherman, Patricia J. Williams, Our Readers and Miles Schuman

Buying In, Selling Out (Education Policy, Journalists and Journalism, Society)

"The black pseudo leader is a parasite," wrote black pseudo-leader Armstrong Williams in October 2004.

Patricia J. Williams

Letters

'VULGARLY OUT OF PLACE'

New York City

Patricia J. Williams, Our Readers and Frances Kissling

Hell Hounds (Law, Politics)

The gentle essayist E.B.

Patricia J. Williams

From Birmingham to Baghdad (Executive Branch, Political Figures, Conservatives and the American Right, Politics)

I, Condoleezza Rice, was leaning over the kitchen sink, hacking up a half-dozen or so rotisserie chickens and slinging the parts into a serving dish in time for the first of the party guests.

Patricia J. Williams

Taking the Hospital (Bush Administration, Religion, Iraqi Reconstruction and Occupation, Politics, Society)

In the postelection world, holding evangelical Protestantism up to the light has become all the rage, which does seem somewhat like shutting the barn door after the horse has left the barn.

Patricia J. Williams