 Phone: 404-727-6334
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William B. Turner Visiting Assistant Professor of Law American Legal History, Racial Integration of Emory University
William B. Turner is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Emory Law with a long-standing interest in issues of equality under the U.S. Constitution, particularly on the topics of racial and sexual orientation discrimination. In the fall of 2007, Professor Turner will teach a practice-oriented course on LGBTI legal issues, and in the spring, his courses will include American Legal History and the Racial Integration of Emory University. Turner began at Emory Law in 2006 as a visiting scholar in the Feminism and Legal Theory (FLT) Project at the invitation of Martha Fineman, director and founder. During his time with the FLT Project, Turner focused his scholarship on the racial integration of Emory University and the role of former Emory Law Dean Ben F. Johnson, Jr., who represented the University in Emory v. Nash in 1962. Johnson later created Pre-Start, an affirmative action program that was a precursor to the modern Council on Legal Educational Opportunity (CLEO), which continues to operate at law schools across the nation today. Turner’s research on the history of racial integration and Pre-Start at Emory contribute to the current debate over the effects of affirmative action in law school admissions. Turner’s scholarship and research also is focused on affirmative action as it relates to sexual orientation discrimination. In his article, “‘The Gay Rights State’: Wisconsin's Pioneering Legislation to Prohibit Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation,” Turner discusses the history of Wisconsin’s statute prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination, the nation’s first. The article, which Turner researched and wrote while in law school at the University of Wisconsin, appears in the Wisconsin Women’s Law Journal. Education: B.A., Grinnell College, 1987; Ph.D., History, Vanderbilt University, 1996; J.D., University of Wisconsin, 2006. |