AUWCL welcomes new faculty for 2022-23
American University’s Washington College of Law is thrilled to welcome four new faculty members for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Jamie Abrams, Maya Manian, Angi Porter and Thomas Williams bring fresh expertise on critical issues facing the legal community, including issues of gender, race and bioethics.
Jamie Abrams
Professor of Law
Director of the Legal Rhetoric Program
Professor Abrams, a summa cum laude graduate of Washington College of Law, returns after most recently serving as a professor of law at the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville. Her research focuses on reproductive and birthing decision-making, gendered violence, masculinities theory, feminist theory and legal education pedagogy. Professor Abrams will teach Legal Rhetoric, Torts, Family Law, Women and the Law and Legislation.
"Jamie Abrams brings an outstanding record of scholarship and teaching back to WCL,” Dean Fairfax said. “Her scholarly commitment and pedagogical vision will help revolutionize our Legal Rhetoric program as it prepares our students to engage the modern practice of law."
Maya Manian
Professor of Law
Faculty Director of the Health Law & Policy Program
Professor Manian will join Washington College of Law next academic year as a professor and the new faculty director of the Health Law Program. A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, her research and teaching areas include Constitutional Law, Family Law, Health Law, Bioethics, Gender and the Law and Reproductive Rights and Justice. She comes from Yale Law School, where she was a visiting fellow in the Program for the Study of Reproductive Justice.
“Maya Manian has an extraordinary scholarly and teaching pedigree and has been one of the nation's leading voices in health law, bioethics, reproductive rights, and constitutional law,” Dean Fairfax said. “Her interdisciplinary approach to law and social science will further enrich the robust intellectual life at AUWCL.”
Angi Porter
Assistant Professor of Law
Professor Porter comes to Washington College of Law after serving most recently as a research fellow at the Georgetown University Law Center, where she researches Africana Legal Studies, the extension of Africana Studies to the discipline of law. Professor Porter, a magna cum laude graduate of Howard University School of Law, will teach Torts, Higher Education Law and Africana legal studies.
"Angi Porter brings a sharp intellectual frame to critical issues in education law and Africana legal studies,” Dean Fairfax said. “Her outstanding scholarly work will augment WCL's strengths in public law and policy, and greatly expand our reach in global legal studies."
Thomas Williams
Assistant Professor of Law
Professor Williams comes to Washington College of Law from the Duke University Initiative for Science and Society, where he is a lecturing fellow, a Law and Biosciences post-doctoral fellow and director of the DukeEngage Washington program. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a J.D. and master’s degree in bioethics, Professor Williams will teach Contracts, Introduction to Health Law and a course in “Pandemics in Popular Culture.”
"Thomas Williams brings a tremendous addition to WCL's top-rated Health Law program,” Dean Fairfax said. “His interdisciplinary scholarship in health law, bioethics, and race and the law builds upon and extends our strengths in these important areas."