Osamudia James

Henry P. Brandis Distinguished Professor of Law

Email
ojames@unc.edu
Curriculum Vitae Download Photo

Areas of Expertise

  • Administrative Law
  • Civil Rights and Discrimination
  • Education Law
  • Race and the Law

Biography

Osamudia James joined the Carolina Law faculty in 2021 and serves as the Henry P. Brandis Distinguished Professor of Law. Her writing and teaching interests include education law, race and the law, administrative law, and torts. James is the author of numerous articles, book chapters, and popular press commentary exploring the interaction of law and identity in the context of public education. Her work has appeared in the NYU Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, and the Minnesota Law Review, among others, as well as in the pages of the New York Times and Washington Post. In 2023, James was cited in Supreme Court Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson’s Students for Fair Admissions dissenting opinion.

James received her B.A. in Sociology, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania, her J.D., cum laude, from the Georgetown University Law Center, and an LL.M. from the University of Wisconsin where she served as a William H. Hastie Fellow. She practiced law at King & Spalding in Washington, DC before joining the faculty at the University of Miami, where she taught for 13 years prior to joining Carolina Law. James was a 2014 co-recipient of the Derrick A. Bell, Jr. Award, a national award presented to a junior faculty member who makes an extraordinary contribution to legal education, the legal system, or social justice through activism, mentoring, teaching and scholarship. She was awarded the Hausler Golden Apple Teaching Award from Miami Law in 2017, and was also selected as a University of Miami Public Voices Fellow in 2020. In 2024, she received the Frederick B. McCall Award for Teaching Excellence from the Carolina Law graduating class.

Selected Publications

Superior Status: Relational Obstacles in Law to Racial Justice & LGBTQ Equality, 63 B.C. L. Rev. 199 (2022). 
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White Injury and Innocence: On the Legal Future of Antiracism Education, 108 VA. L. REV. 1689 (2022).
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Risky Education, 89 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 667 (2021).
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The "Innocence" of Bias, 119 MICH. L. REV. 1345 (2021).
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The Political Economy of Pandemic Pods, 96 NYU L. REV. ONLINE 89 (2021).
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Identity: Obstacles and Openings, 73 SMU L. REV. F. 156 (2020).
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Talking About Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, 34 WISC J. L. GENDER & SOC'Y. 109 (2019). 
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Valuing Identity, 102 MINN. L. REV. 127 (2017).
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Diversity, Democracy and White Racial Identity: Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, 71 NAT'L LAW. GUILD REV. 1 (2014).
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Opt-Out Education: School Choice as Racial Subordination, 99 IOWA L. REV. 1083 (2014).
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