Tomiko Brown-Nagin

Tomiko Brown-Nagin

Tomiko Brown-Nagin was born in 1970 and is currently 56 years old. Brown-Nagin attended Furman University where she received a Bachelor of Arts in history, Yale University where she received a J.D. degree and Duke University where she received a Ph.D. in history.

Tomiko Brown-Nagin is a distinguished American academic leader, historian, and legal scholar.

She is the dean of the premier Harvard Radcliffe Institute, which is known for conducting interdisciplinary research. She is also a Harvard University professor of history and a Harvard Law School Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law.

Tomiko launched her legal profession with clerkships with judges in the US Court of Appeals and the US District Court. She would then become a lawyer at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, and Garrison, the New York law firm. Thereafter, she got into teaching and taught at the School of Law at the University of Virginia.

Tomiko Brown-Nagin would then proceed to professorships at Harvard before she became dean at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. During this time, she would become a critically acclaimed scholar, producing several significant works in education reform, civil rights history and law and equal protection jurisprudence.

Aside from her work as a scholar, she has contributed to institutional leadership and public service. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was the chair of the Presidential Committee on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery, which looked into the institution’s historical links to slavery.

Tomiko Brown-Nagin’s Courage to Dissent is an exploration of how African-Americans challenged and held debates on how best to fight for their civil rights. The work highlights the perspectives of both grassroots activists and well-known leaders and the tensions between local movements and national organizations such as the NAACP.

Four years later, Tomiko Brown-Nagin published Reconsidering the Insular Cases. The work is an exploration of several decisions by the Supreme Court over the centuries that have denied inalienable rights to citizens of U.S. territories such as American Samoa and Puerto Rico.
In 2022, Tomiko Brown-Nagin published Civil Rights Queen, a work in which she captured the story of Motley, a figure who inspired African American imaginations across the US.

The author asks his readers to ponder some of the urgent but timeless questions such as how do those who have been historically marginalized get into the corridors of power, and how does that access shape their commitment?

Tomiko Brown-Nagin: Awards & Accolades

Brown-Nagin's book, Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Best Biography, in 2022.

Tomiko Brown-Nagin: Lists & Other Mentions

• Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality was a Time Magazine: 100 Must-Read Books Selection in 2022.

Related Authors

Fans of Tomiko Brown-Nagin also enjoy these authors:

1. Stephen King, author of The Dark Tower Series.
2. J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter Series.
3. Michael Connelly, author of the Harry Bosch Series.
4. Charles Dickens, author of: A Christmas Carol.
5. Sue Grafton, author of the Kinsey Millhone Series.

Tomiko Brown-Nagin: F.A.Q