Photograph by David Torrence; Illustration by Sam Wiley
“For the past decade, Washington University has recognized that we’re competitive in all of these different areas. However, we’re just not as competitive on diversity and inclusion,” says Adrienne Davis, who was recently promoted to vice provost for diversity and
faculty development with the goal of improving those areas.
It seems her entire life has built to this point. Born in 1965, Davis grew up in D.C. during a time of social upheaval. “I always tell people that it was a good time to be born African-American in that part of the country: It was the height of the civil-rights movement, and there was a sense of optimism about racial equality.” Her father was an FBI agent, “the second African-American agent, hired by J. Edgar Hoover in 1962.” Her mother, who eventually became an attorney, was an outspoken activist for civil rights and women’s rights. “I grew up in a world of housewife activism and civic parenting,” recalls Davis.
Years ago, she clerked for Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., whom activist Jesse Jackson described in 1998 by saying, “What Thurgood Marshall and Charles Hamilton Houston were to the first half of this century, Judge Higginbotham was to the second half.”
“He, probably more than any figure, shaped my research,” says Davis, noting that Higginbotham penned two influential books on slavery. “He thought about the law as an instrument, truly, of justice and democracy.”
After graduating from Yale Law School, Davis began teaching at the University of San Francisco School of Law at age 25. She oversaw lectures about contracts, trusts, and estates—“what one of my colleagues calls the Law of Daily Life,”
she says.
“And then I have this other side of myself that is deeply theoretical,” explains Davis. For years, those interests have revolved around race and gender. (Davis and law professor Robert Chang would later write a heartfelt academic paper titled Making Up Is Hard to Do, about their trying experiences as young, minority law professors.) During the past two years, however, her research has explored what she terms “irregular intimacy—people whose intimate lives do not conform to what we expect.” Last year, Davis studied U.S. law as it applies to polygamy (an idea spurred by HBO’s Big Love). This year, she wrote about sex work—that of exotic dancers, prostitutes, and phone-sex workers. Most recently, she’s examined the laws of pet inheritance, writing an essay on the subject for the recent “Dog Days of Summer” exhibit at Laumeier Sculpture Park, where she’s a board member.
What connects all of these cases is the way the underpinnings of the legal system influence people’s daily lives—something she asks law students at Wash. U. to explore.
Davis also encourages dialogue beyond the classroom. In 2009, she founded the Law, Identity & Culture Initiative, which will host a black citizenship workshop and bring speakers to St. Louis to discuss race, gender, and identity in connection with the 2012 presidential election. As vice provost, she also advises Wash. U.’s seven schools on diversity and faculty-development initiatives, including ways to support female and minority faculty.
“There are times when a dean or an associate dean might say, ‘How can we support Bob or Jane in his or her teaching?’” says Davis. “And I can say, ‘Boy, do I have some studies for you!’”
