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Angela Onwuachi-Willig
18th Dean of Boston University School of Law
In office
August 15, 2018 – Present
Preceded byMaureen O’Rourke
Personal details
SpouseJacob Willig-Onwuachi
Children3
EducationYale University (MA, MPhil, PhD)

University of Michigan Law School (JD)

Grinnell College (BA)

Angela Onwuachi-Willig is an American legal scholar. She is the 18th Dean and the inaugural Ryan Roth Gallo and Ernest J. Gallo Professor[1] at Boston University School of Law[2] with expertise in critical race theory, employment discrimination, and family law.[3] She joined Boston University School of Law on August 15th, 2018 as Dean and Professor of Law,[4] having previously been the Chancellor's Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.[5]

Early life and education

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Onwuachi-Willig was raised in Houston, Texas. She was raised by her parents, Nigerian immigrants, in an apartment complex that housed mostly African-American and Latino tenants. However, the school system Onwuachi-Willig attended for her primary education was relatively integrated, and her high school experience included racial riots.[6]

After her primary education, Onwuachi-Willig graduated with a B.A. in American Studies from Grinnell College, where she met her husband, Jacob Willig-Onwuachi,[7] and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Following her undergraduate career, Onwuachi-Willig earned her J.D. at the University of Michigan Law School,[8] where she was a Clarence Darrow Scholar and served as a note editor on the Michigan Law Review and an associate editor for the founding issue of the Michigan Journal of Race & Law.[9] In May 2017, she earned a PhD in Sociology and African American Studies from Yale University. Her thesis, “The Trauma of Till and Trayvon,” explored cultural trauma relating to race from a political and sociological standpoint.[10]

Career

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Following law school, Onwuachi-Willig held clerk positions for both The Honorable Solomon Oliver Jr., U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of Ohio and The Honorable Karen Nelson Moore, U.S. Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.[11] She was a labor and employment associate at Jones Day in Cleveland, Ohio and Foley Hoag in Boston, Massachussetts before she became a professor at the University of California Davis School of Law. In 2006, Onwuachi-Willig became the inaugural Charles and Marion Kierscht Professor of Law at the University of Iowa,[8] where she founded the Lutie A. Lytle Black Women Law Faculty Workshop and Writing Retreat.[12]

In 2010, Onwuachi-Willig was elected to the American Law Institute.[13] In 2011, she was one of nine finalists nominated to fill three open seats with the Iowa Supreme Court.[14]She was the youngest nominee, as well as the only woman and only member of a racial minority.[14][15] She was not selected.[16] That same year, Onwuachi-Willig was named to the National Law Journal’s “Minority 40 Under 40” list.[17] Since 2013, she has contributed articles to HuffPost on topics of law and race.[18] In 2014, Onwuachi-Willig joined the Common Cause National Governing Board.[19] Then in 2016, she left the University of Iowa to become the Chancellor's Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.[20]

From 2017-2018, Onwuachi-Willig had a fellowship with the American Bar Foundation as the William H. Neukom Fellows Research Chair in Diversity and Law.[21] The first of Onwuachi-Willig's two research projects during her fellowship was a study of the cases of Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin, comparing the two because both cases are examples of an African-American man's killer being acquitted in court.[17][22] Onwuachi-Willig also studied the National Bar Association (NBA), which is the largest network of African-American lawyers and judges in the United States. She focused specifically on the foundation and development of the NBA and the conditions that led its founders to create such a network.[17]

In June 2018, she was elected to a 3-year term on the Law School Admission Council's (LSAC) Board of Trustees.[9] Later that summer, Onwuachi-Willig began her tenure as the dean of the Boston University School of Law, succeeding Maureen O'Rourke. As a scholar of racial and gender inequality, Onwuachi-Willig cited Boston University School of Law's "history of access and diversity" as her reason for leaving UC Berkeley and accepting the role of dean at BU.[4]

In July 2019, Onwuachi-Willig was appointed to the Advisory Committee on Massachusetts Judicial Nominations, which examines applicants for federal District Court judgeships in Massachusetts.[23] In recognition of her work in the areas of critical race theory, racial and gender inequality, and anti-discrimination law, Onwuachi-Willig was named the first Ryan Roth Gallo and Ernest J. Gallo Professor in February 2021.[1]

Onwuachi-Willig has served as Chair for the Employment Discrimination Law and Law and the Humanities academic sections of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). She has also served as Chair of the Minority Groups affinity section of the AALS[9] and is a trustee for Grinnell College.[24] She is a member of the bar in the State of Ohio, the State of Iowa, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.[25]

Scholarship

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Onwuachi-Willig's scholarship is written from a "liberal black womanist" perspective.[26]

Books

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According to Our Hearts: Rhinelander v. Rhinelander and the Law of the Multiracial Family (Yale University Press, 2013)

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Onwuachi-Willig examines interracial couples, multiracial families, and how the law can result in them finding themselves "placeless" in society.[27] Using Rhinelander v. Rhinelander as a starting point, she presents her own research on modern-day multiracial families, as well as personal anecdotes, and ultimately argues that multiracial families need stronger legal protections from discrimination, not only in personal settings, but also in the workplace.[28] Onwuachi-Willig proposes that "interraciality," where individuals consider themselves to be one race but are part of an interracial family,[29] should be a category protected by anti-discrimination laws.[30] Some have questioned whether this would provide enough protection for interracial families, especially those that do not present as a traditional nuclear family. It has been suggested that encouraging acceptance of more types of family structures might better protect multiracial families.[30]: 737 

Vulnerable Populations and Transformative Law Teaching: A Critical Reader (Carolina Academic Press, 2011)

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This volume, co-edited with Raquel Aldana, Steven Bender, Olympia Duhart, Michele Benedetto Neitz, Hari Osofosky, and Hazel Weiser,[31] is a compilation of essays adapted from presentations given at a March 2010 teaching conference titled "Vulnerable Populations and Economic Realities."[32]

Articles

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In addition to furthering the scholarly conversation, Onwuachi-Willig's articles have provided guidance in court decisions.[33][34] As of January 2020, her most-cited articles include:[35][36]

  • Angela Onwuachi-Willing, The Return of the Ring: Welfare Reform's Marriage Cure as the Revival of Post-Bellum Control, 93 Calif. L. Rev. 1647 (2005): Onwuachi-Willig details the U.S. Congress's attempts to alleviate poverty among welfare recipients by encouraging marriage.[37] While this is the stated goal, she also suspects Congress of trying to persuade African-American families to adopt Anglo-American family values and practices.[38] She compares this to Reconstruction, when government-promoted marriages between former slaves strengthened black families, but also strengthened patriarchy in the black community[39] and shifted economic responsibility for black mothers and children away from the government.[40]
  • Angela I. Onwuachi-Willing & Mario L. Barnes, By Any Other Name: On Being Regarded as Black, and Why Title VII Should Apply Even if Lakisha and Jamal are White, 2005 Wis. L. Rev. 1283 (2005): Onwuachi-Willig and Mario Barnes show how people use proxies (i.e., applicants' names) to discriminate based on protected characteristics, such as race and national origin.[41] They argue individuals who experience this discrimination should be protected by Title VII, even if they do not actually possess the protected characteristic (i.e., are not phenotypically black).[42] They believe this could be achieved if Title VII's requirement that discrimination be "because of" a person's race, national origin, or religion was interpreted to include instances where a person is "regarded as" a particular race, national origin, or religion. Precedent for extending this kind of protection can be found in the Americans with Disabilities Act, which includes the "regarded as" language.[43]
  • Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Undercover Other, 94 Calif. L. Rev. 873 (2006): Onwuachi-Willig examines the social construction of race,[44] specifically the social construction of "authentic blackness," which includes identifying as a political liberal or progressive.[45] She also notes the similarities of passing by people in interracial relationships and gays and lesbians to adhere to social constructions of race and sexuality.[39]: 600  In addition to examining how people engage in passing in society at large, Onwuachi-Willig also discusses "in-group passing," where individuals "may feel compelled to perform their identities in certain ways" to be seen as a legitimate member within a smaller community.[46]
  • Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Just Another Brother on the SCT: What Justice Clarence Thomas Teaches Us About the Influence of Racial Identity, 90 Iowa L. Rev. 931 (2004-2005): Onwuachi-Willig examines Justice Clarence Thomas's decisions and concludes he adheres to a unique form of Black conservatism,[47] which values black victims' rights over black criminal defendants' rights and is concerned about stigmatizing black affirmative action beneficiaries.[48]
  • Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Another Hair Piece: Exploring New Strands of Analysis Under Title VII, 98 Geo. L.J. 1079 (2010): Onwuachi-Willig asserts that Title VII's protection against racial discrimination should extend to black women's hairstyles because the physical differences between black and white women's hair are immutable.[49] She suggests that if courts had a better understanding of black women's hair, they would see that hairstyle is a proxy for race.[50]

Awards

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  • AALS Derrick Bell Award (2006)[51]
  • Fellow, American Bar Foundation (2011)[15]
  • Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Clyde Ferguson Award (2015)[52]
  • Gertrude Rush Award (2016) from the Iowa Organization of Women Attorneys[53]
  • John Hope Franklin, Jr., Prize (2018) from the Iowa Chapter of the National Bar Association Law and Society[9]
  • AALS Impact Award (2021) for the Law Deans Antiracist Clearinghouse Project[54]

Personal life

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Onwuachi-Willig is married to physicist Jacob Willig-Onwuachi.[55][56]


References

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  1. ^ a b Bouranova, Alene (3 February 2021). "Trustee and Alum Endows New Antiracism Professorship at the School of Law". Bostonia. Boston University. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  2. ^ "Boston University School of Law History | School of Law". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  3. ^ Lithwick, Dahlia (2020-06-08). "The Law Isn't Neutral". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  4. ^ a b McKiernan, Kathleen (2018-06-22). "Boston University picks Angela Onwuachi-Willig to head law school". Boston Herald. Retrieved 2020-06-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ Woolhouse, Megan (25 May 2018). "Noted Scholar of Inequality to Lead BU School of Law". BU Today. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  6. ^ Dillard, Rob. "A Candid Talk About Race". www.iowapublicradio.org. Retrieved 2019-12-27.
  7. ^ "Angela Onwuachi-Willig '94". Grinnell College. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  8. ^ a b "Angela Onwuachi-Willig | Law Library". library.law.uiowa.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
  9. ^ a b c d "2019 Nominees for LSAC Board of Trustees | LSAC.org". www.lsac.org. Retrieved 2019-12-27.
  10. ^ "Recent PhD Angela Onwuachi-Willig to be Dean of Boston University School of Law | Sociology". sociology.yale.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  11. ^ "2019 Women's Power Summit on Law & Leadership | Angela Onwuachi-Willig". Retrieved 2019-12-22.
  12. ^ "Lutie A. Lytle History and Purpose". SMU Dedman School of Law. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  13. ^ Sloan, Karen (31 October 2011). "Angela Onwuachi-Willig: University of Iowa College of Law; Minority 40 Under 40". The National Law Journal. ALM Media Properties, LLC. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  14. ^ a b Schulte, Grant (2011-01-29). "Justice finalist list has 1 minority". The Des Moines Register. p. 4. Retrieved 2020-06-09.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  15. ^ a b Schettler, Emily (2011-12-31). "10 to watch in 2012: Angela Onwuachi-Willig". Iowa City Press-Citizen. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-06-09.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ^ Geary, Mark (2011-02-26). "UI law professor says system is in good hands". The Gazette. pp. P2. Retrieved 2020-06-09.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ a b c "Angela Onwuachi-Willig - American Bar Foundation". www.americanbarfoundation.org. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  18. ^ "Angela Onwuachi-Willig | HuffPost". www.huffpost.com. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
  19. ^ Eisman, Dale. "Angela Onwuachi-Willig Joins Common Cause National Governing Board". Common Cause. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  20. ^ Cohen, Andrew. "New Faculty Additions Excited to Join Berkeley Law, Eager to Get Started". BerkeleyLaw: University of California. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  21. ^ "William H. Neukom Fellows Research Chair in Diversity and Law - American Bar Foundation". www.americanbarfoundation.org. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  22. ^ Onwuachi-Willig, Angela (2018). "FROM EMMETT TILL TO TRAYVON MARTIN: The Persistence of White Womanhood and the Preservation of White Manhood". Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race. 15 (2): 257–294. doi:10.1017/S1742058X18000292. ISSN 1742-058X.
  23. ^ "Evangelidis Appointed to Advisory Committee on Judicial Nominations". The Landmark. 29 July 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  24. ^ "Trustees". Grinnell College. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  25. ^ "Attorney Bar and ECF Status Report" (PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  26. ^ Gerber, Scott (Summer 2011). "Justice for Clarence Thomas: An Intellectual History of Justice Thomas's Twenty Years on the Supreme Court". University of Detroit Mercy Law Review. 88 (4): 682. Retrieved 31 January 2020. (quoting Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Just Another Brother on the SCT?: What Justice Clarence Thomas Teaches Us About the Influence of Racial Identity, 90 Iowa L. Rev. 931, 934 (2004)).
  27. ^ Lenhardt, R.A. (Summer 2013). "According to Our Hearts and Location: Toward a Structuralist Approach to the Study of Interracial Families". Journal of Gender, Race & Justice. 16 (3): 748. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  28. ^ Rosenbury, Laura (Summer 2013). "Marital Status and Privilege". Journal of Gender, Race & Justice. 16 (3): 786. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  29. ^ Bridgeman, Jacquelyn (Summer 2013). "On Shifting Hearts and Minds: Interraciality, Equal Value, and Equality". Journal of Gender, Race & Justice. 16 (3): 715. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
  30. ^ a b Chacon, Jennifer (2013). "Opening Our Hearts: A Response to Angela Onwuachi-Willig's according to Our Hearts". Journal of Gender, Race & Justice. 16: 725–740 – via HeinOnline.
  31. ^ "Co-Vulnerable Populations and Transformative Law Teaching: A Critical Reader". Iowa Research Online: The University of Iowa's Institutional Repository. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  32. ^ "Vulnerable Populations and Transformative Law Teaching: A Critical Reader". Amazon.com. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  33. ^ State v. Trimble, 4 (Iowa Ct. App. 9 October 2019), Text.
  34. ^ Daniel v. Wayans, 213 Cal Rptr.3d 865, 880 (Cal. Ct. App. 2017).
  35. ^ "Onwuachi- Willig, Angela Ifeoma". HeinOnline. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  36. ^ "Onwuachi-Willig, Angela". Web of Science. Clarivate. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  37. ^ Murray, Melissa (May 2009). "Strange Bedfellows: Criminal Law, Family Law, and the Legal Construction of Intimate Life". Iowa Law Review. 94 (4): 1283, n. 135. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  38. ^ Murray, Melissa (October 2008). "Equal Rites and Equal Rights". California Law Review. 96 (5): 1402, n. 39. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  39. ^ a b Gher, Jaime (Spring 2008). "Polygamy and Same-Sex Marriage - Allies or Adversaries within the Same-Sex Marriage Movement". William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law. 14 (3): 568, n. 51. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  40. ^ Pruitt, Lisa (Spring 2007). "Missing the Mark: Welfare Reform and Rural Poverty". Journal of Gender, Race & Justice. 10 (3): 477, n. 261. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  41. ^ Barnes, Mario; Chemerinsky, Erwin; Jones, Trina (April 2010). "A Post-Race Equal Protection". Georgetown Law Journal. 98 (4): 979, n. 47. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
  42. ^ Lau, Holning (Summer 2007). "Pluralism: A Principle for Children's Rights" (PDF). Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. 42 (2): 339, n. 135. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
  43. ^ Greene, Wendy (Fall 2013). "Categorically Black, White, or Wrong: Misperception Discrimination and the State of Title VII Protection". University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform. 47 (1): 115. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  44. ^ James, Osamudia (May 2014). "White Like Me: The Negative Impact of the Diversity Rationale on White Identity Formation". New York University Law Review. 89 (2): 461, n. 180. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  45. ^ Smith, Stephen (2009). "Clarence X: The Black Nationalist Behind Justice Thomas's Constitutionalism" (PDF). New York University Journal of Law & Liberty. 4 (3): 602. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  46. ^ Elias, Stella (February 2017). "Immigrant Covering". William & Mary Law Review. 58 (3): 779. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  47. ^ Cherry, Miriam; Rogers, Robert (Spring 2006). "Tiresias and the Justices: Using Information Markets to Predict Supreme Court Decisions". Northwestern University Law Review. 100 (3): 1152, n. 61. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  48. ^ McFarlane, Audrey (2009). "Rebuilding the Public-Private City" (PDF). Indiana Law Review. 42 (1): 112, n. 85. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  49. ^ Hoffman, Sharona (April 2011). "The Importance of Immutability in Employment Discrimination Law". William and Mary Law Review. 52 (5): 1524, n. 218. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  50. ^ Powell, Crystal (2018). "Bias, Employment Discrimination, and Black Women's Hair: Another Way Forward". Brigham Young University Law Review. 2018 (4): 951. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  51. ^ "AALS Recognizes Two UCI Law Professors with 2015 Awards for Excellence". University of California, Irvine. 2014-12-02. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  52. ^ "Onwuachi-Willig Receives Clyde Ferguson, Jr. Award". Yale University. 2014-11-21. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  53. ^ "Awards". Iowa Organization of Women Attorneys. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  54. ^ Greif, Jim. "AALS to Present Inaugural Impact Award to Law Deans Who Created Antiracist Clearinghouse Project". The Association of American Law Schools. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  55. ^ Rossiter, Molly (2007-06-09). "Attitudes more open today". The Gazette. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-06-09.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  56. ^ Onwuachi-Willig, Angela; Willig-Onwuachi, Jacob (2008-12-09). "Iowa Supreme Court should again be a pioneer". Iowa City Press-Citizen. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-06-09.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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