Patricia J. Williams

About

Patricia J. Williams is a graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard Law School. She is the James L. Dohr Professor of Law at Columbia University. Her book, The Alchemy of Race and Rights was named one of the twenty-five best books of 1991 by the Voice Literary Supplement; one of the “feminist classics of the last twenty years” that “literally changed women’s lives” by Ms. Magazine; and one of the ten best non-fiction books of the decade by Amazon.com. Other books include Seeing a Color-Blind Future: The Paradox of Race (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1998), and The Search for a Room of My Own (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2004). Her 1988 article, ‘On Being The Object of Property’, remains one of the most cited pieces ever published in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. As a parallel career, Professor Williams has pursued journalism. She has authored hundreds of essays, book reviews, and articles for journals, popular magazines and newspapers. Her award-winning column, “Diary of a Mad Law Professor,” has appeared monthly in The Nation Magazine for two decades.