Professor Patricia J. Williams Will be Honored with Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award

10.27.2025—University Distinguished Professor of Law and Humanities Patricia J. Williams has been named co-recipient of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Women in Legal Education Section’s 2026 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors women who have led distinguished careers in teaching, service and scholarship for at least 20 years and who have had an impact on women, the legal community, the academy and the issues that affect women through mentoring, writing, speaking, activism and by providing opportunities to others.

One of the most provocative intellectuals in American law, Williams has published widely in the areas of race, gender, literature and law. Her many honors include a MacArthur Fellowship and the 2025 Windham-Campbell Prize for Nonfiction, one of the world’s most significant international literary awards, in recognition of her 2024 book, The Miracle of the Black Leg: Notes on Race, Human Bodies, and the Spirit of the Law (The New Press, 2024), an expansive and deeply humane collection of essays that explores the tricky places where history, law and identity collide. Her groundbreaking book The Alchemy of Race and Rights (Harvard University Pres, 1992) was hailed by leaders of the academy and press, including a The New York Times review that asserted “Williams changed the voice of legal scholarship.” The AALS Section on Women in Legal Education notes that the book “allowed many women of color in law schools to feel seen for the first time.” Beyond her celebrated scholarship, she has been a pivotal mentor to generations of women scholars, particularly women of color.

Williams shares the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award with co-recipient Peggy Cooper Davis, John S.R. Shad Professor of Lawyering and Ethics Emerita at NYU Law. Davis is a pioneering scholar whose groundbreaking work in constitutional law, family law and legal pedagogy, including her influential leadership of NYU’s Lawyering Program and her interdisciplinary scholarship bridging law with history and emotion, has fundamentally reshaped legal education and inspired generations of students and colleagues.

“I am overwhelmed and genuinely humbled to share the Ruth Bader Ginsburg award with a great mentor and role model, the legendary Professor Peggy Cooper Davis. I am so grateful to the AALS for this recognition,” said Williams, who has authored six books and hundreds of essays, book reviews and articles for leading journals, popular magazines and newspapers, including the Guardian, Ms., The New York Times, The New Yorker and The Washington Post. For many years, she wrote a monthly column in The Nation.

Williams and Davis will receive the award at the 2026 Annual AALS Conference, which will be held in New Orleans in January.

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