Robert A. Williams, Jr., an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, serves as Regents Professor and E. Thomas Sullivan Professor of Law at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, where he also holds the position of Faculty Co-Chair of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program. He earned an A.B. in English Literature from Loyola College in Baltimore in 1977 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1980, receiving the H.E.W. American Indian Fellowship during his studies. Williams commenced his academic career as Assistant Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School from 1981 to 1984, followed by appointments as Assistant and Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School from 1984 to 1986. In 1986, he joined the University of Arizona as Marks Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law and secured a permanent tenured position in 1987, progressing through roles including Faculty Chair of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program. He has served as visiting professor at Harvard Law School multiple times, notably as Oneida Indian Nation Visiting Professor in 2004, Cross Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Washington School of Law in 1992-1993, and other institutions.

His research focuses on federal Indian law, indigenous peoples law and policy, American Indian treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, and the legal history of racism in America. Prominent publications include The American Indian in Western Legal Thought: The Discourses of Conquest (Oxford University Press, 1990), Linking Arms Together: American Indian Treaty Visions of Law and Peace, 1600-1800 (Oxford University Press, 1997), Like a Loaded Weapon: The Rehnquist Court, Indian Rights and the Legal History of Racism in America (University of Minnesota Press, 2005), Savage Anxieties: The Invention of Western Civilization (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), and co-authorship of Federal Indian Law: Cases and Materials (7th ed., West Publishing Co., 2017). Williams has garnered major awards, including the Lawrence R. Baca Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Federal Indian Law (2017), University of Arizona Gerald G. Swanson Prize for Teaching Excellence (2020), Henry and Phyllis Koffler Prize for Outstanding Accomplishments in Public Service (2006), and grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Soros Senior Justice Fellowship. He served as Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals for the Pascua Yaqui Indian Tribe (1998-2000), Associate Justice (1988-1997), and Judge pro tem for the Tohono O’odham Indian Nation since 1988. His scholarship has shaped indigenous rights discourse through representations before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Peoples, and U.S. Supreme Court.

Professional Email: lumbee@arizona.edu