Tomiko Brown-Nagin: Brings Insight Into Legal and Social History
Professor Tomiko Brown-Nagin, who permanently joined the law faculty this semester, emphasizes special relationships with mentors and colleagues as key in her education, professional life and advice to current students.
Brown-Nagin knew early in her academic career that she aspired to become a professor, but she has taken a relatively scenic route toward that goal, which has augmented her strength as a teacher and scholar. Her path began with five years spent moving between Duke and Yale. After completing her master’s degree in history at Duke in one year, she finished one year of law school at Yale, returned to Duke for a few semesters to work toward her history Ph.D., and then returned to Yale to finish law school.
“It was a really frenetic and crazy adventure that I undertook,” she recalled. “I wasn’t being strategic, but pursuing my interests and passions, wherever they took me, and I’m glad I did.”
While she was drawn to Duke to work with historian William Chafe, who later became her advisor, she was attracted to Yale because of her interest in public interest law.
“I went to Yale Law School because of its storied reputation,” she explained. “I didn’t think it could be considered a bad decision, in any event.”
With two graduate degrees completed and several successful summer internship experiences in Washington, D.C.—with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the Department of Justice—Brown-Nagin next decided to spend time clerking. She first clerked for Judge Robert Carter of the United States District Court in Manhattan.
“I learned an incredible amount from [Carter] about professionalism and responsibility to community,” she said. “I think I would be a different person today if I hadn’t had that contact.”...
Read entire article at lawweekly.org
Brown-Nagin knew early in her academic career that she aspired to become a professor, but she has taken a relatively scenic route toward that goal, which has augmented her strength as a teacher and scholar. Her path began with five years spent moving between Duke and Yale. After completing her master’s degree in history at Duke in one year, she finished one year of law school at Yale, returned to Duke for a few semesters to work toward her history Ph.D., and then returned to Yale to finish law school.
“It was a really frenetic and crazy adventure that I undertook,” she recalled. “I wasn’t being strategic, but pursuing my interests and passions, wherever they took me, and I’m glad I did.”
While she was drawn to Duke to work with historian William Chafe, who later became her advisor, she was attracted to Yale because of her interest in public interest law.
“I went to Yale Law School because of its storied reputation,” she explained. “I didn’t think it could be considered a bad decision, in any event.”
With two graduate degrees completed and several successful summer internship experiences in Washington, D.C.—with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the Department of Justice—Brown-Nagin next decided to spend time clerking. She first clerked for Judge Robert Carter of the United States District Court in Manhattan.
“I learned an incredible amount from [Carter] about professionalism and responsibility to community,” she said. “I think I would be a different person today if I hadn’t had that contact.”...