Patricia Williams

A graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard Law School, Williams has served on faculties of the University of Wisconsin School of Law, Harvard University's Women's Studies Program, and the City University of New York Law School at Queen's College. She has held fellowships at the School of Criticism and Theory at Dartmouth College, the Humanities Research Institute of the University of California at Irvine, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. She is the recipient of the MacArthur foundation "genius" grant.

This year’s celebration, “Lift EVERY Voice,” kicks off with a Spiritual Celebration Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2006, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Durham Community Church. On Wednesday, Feb. 1, UNH will hold an Educational Panel from 2 to 4 p.m., MUB Strafford Room, to discuss “Civil Rights in an Era of Civil Wrongs: Exploring Contemporary Threats to Democracy.” The keynote address, “Women’s Voices and Civil Rights” with Williams follows from 7 to 8:30 p.m., at the Paul Creative Arts Center, Johnson Theatre.

“For the third year, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration is being planned in community with students, staff, and faculty. This year's theme, "Lift EVERY Voice," demonstrates how all voices are important and needed in all civil rights movements,” said Irene Kao, multicultural coordinator for the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs and chair of the celebration planning committee.

Before entering academia, Williams practiced law as a consumer advocate and deputy city attorney for the City of Los Angeles and as a staff attorney for the Western Center on Law and Poverty. She serves on the boards of the Center for Constitutional Rights, NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Society of American Law Teachers.

She has authored numerous articles for scholarly journals and popular magazines and newspapers including USA Today, Harvard Law Review, Tikkun, the New York Times Book Review, The Nation, Ms. magazine, and the Village Voice. Her book, “The Alchemy of Race and Rights,” was named one of the 25 best books of 1991 by the Voice Literary Supplement and one of the "feminist classics of the last 20 years" that "literally changed women's lives," by Ms. magazine's Twentieth Anniversary Edition. Her newest book is titled “Open House: Of Family, Friends, Food, Piano Lessons, and a Search for a Room of My Own.” It is a personal collection of stories, essays, anecdotes, and biography. She also has authored “Seeing a Color-Blind Future,” and “The Rooster's Egg,” and writes the column “Diary of a Mad Law Professor” for The Nation.